Wanting It
by Bimadabomi
Summary: Post season five finale. Will Luke say yes? LL emphasis. Part 6 up. [Complete]
1. Part 1

Wanting It 

Part 1

I know, I know. We've seen a thousand and one post finale fics for season 5 already and it's only been a week. But I had to give it a go! Mine is more than one part, though, so this is just the beginning. I really don't feel great about this part. I feel like I've read too many fics about this and heard too many ideas and they all kind of blended together and none of it seems original anymore. So bare with me with this part! Heh. Enjoy. 

**Disclaimer**: None of the characters are mine.

"Luke, will you marry me?"

"What?" he asked in a whisper.

"Marry me," she repeated, her voice soft. She couldn't believe what she was doing. Well, that wasn't true. She could. She could totally believe it because in just twenty seconds she had realized that she wanted to marry Luke and she was going to take it into her own hands. But she couldn't believe that she was the one saying the words, after all those years of commitment issues, the words were coming out of her mouth.

"_What_?" Luke repeated as well, with more of an emphasis on the 'what,' his voice a little louder than the whisper his first 'what' had come out in. "Lorelai, what… why are you doing this?"

"Because I want to marry you," she stated with more confidence than he'd ever heard her have.

"Where is this coming from?" he asked, sitting down on the chair across from her.

"Are you saying no?" she asked with a slight frown.

"No. I mean yes. I mean no. I—I'm not saying anything," he clarified. "But where the hell did this come from? Two seconds ago you were sitting there upset about Rory and then suddenly…"

"I know. I know, but God, Luke," she said. "You're the only one I can trust. You're always there for me, no matter what. You would do anything for me or for Rory, and I know that. I'm sitting here listening to you talk about how you're going to help me. I went to my parents for help, and you know that's not something I do often, and they stab me in the back. But you tell me you're going to help me, and that I trust. Completely. You make up some, granted a little unrealistic, plans about how to get Rory back into Yale. Not just a plan for how _I'm_ going to get Rory back to Yale, but how _we're_ going to get Rory back to Yale. You assure me that _you're_ not going to let this happen because this has always been _her_ dream. You're her father, Luke. Maybe not biologically and maybe not legally or officially, but hell you're the one that's always been there for her. And I just don't think it's possible to love you anymore than I do at this moment, and that's where this is coming from."

He stared at her for a moment, as if he couldn't believe this was happening. All those years he thought a moment like this would only be something of his imagination. For all those years he thought that just _kissing_ her would be something left to his imagination. And now she was here, proposing to _him_, telling him he was the only one that she could trust and that… did she just tell him that she loved him?

"Did you just, did you…?"

She smiled at him, a genuine smile for the first time all night, knowing exactly what in her speech caught him off guard. "Yeah. I do. I love you, Luke. And I'm sorry it took almost a year for me to say it."

He took her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I love you too," he replied softly. Their eyes locked for a moment and she smiled at him slightly.

"So…"

"So?" he repeated with confusion.

"I asked you a question."

"Oh. That. Lorelai, we can't… it… it can't happen like this."

"What?"

"You're upset, you've had a tough week. Things with Rory are confusing right now. You don't need to have the stress of this on you, too."

"This isn't stressful."

"I want to marry you," he explained suddenly. She looked up at him, confusion written all over her face along with a hint of hope. "And I will. Mark my words. I _will_ marry you. But you deserve to have this done right, with you know… a thousand yellow daisies," he said quietly.

"I don't need a thousand yellow daisies!" she explained. "Don't do that to yourself, Luke, I don't need that stuff. I don't need anything. I don't even need a ring. I just need you."

He took her hands in his and looked her in the eyes. "You have me, Lorelai. No matter what, you have me. I'm _always_ here for you," he added, and he noticed her eyes tear up. "And I'm not saying no to your proposal, technically. I'm just… saying no to the timing. Just give it a little while. Let everyone calm down, let everything settle and then tell me how you're feeling. If you still want this, say the word. If not, we'll drop it for now."

"I'm going to want it," she assured him, tears starting to surface. Everything had just been too much. Rory dropping out of Yale, Rory and Logan and the yacht, her parents going behind her back and turning on her, Luke being the absolute angel that he always was, the overwhelming realization that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, finally telling him she loved him and him saying it back, and now the fact that she was slightly disappointed about him not give a resounding "yes!" but the excitement that she felt knowing it could still happen soon was making her happy. She couldn't help it suddenly, and the tears just started falling slowly down her cheeks—sad tears, angry tears, happy tears, everything hit her all at once.

"Shh," she heard Luke sooth her, pulling her up off her chair and right to him. "Everything's going to be okay."

She nodded into his chest. "I hope so."

"It will," he promised her. "Everything will work out, everything will be okay. I'll make sure of it. I'm here."

She nodded again and kept her head on his chest. "See? That right there. That's why I want to marry you."

"Lorelai, please. Just let yourself have time to think about what you're asking me. I don't want you to regret it later."

He put his hand on the back of her head, the other hand lightly stroking her back. She nodded. "Okay. I'd never regret it. But fine, I'll let it sink in."

"Good. Thank you." She laughed a little, marveling at how he just had to turn her down and he was thanking her. That's how much more important she was to him than himself. "Now, you want to go upstairs? Your place? What do you want to do? Name it and we'll do it." She sniffled and pulled away from him, looking up at him with a smile.

"I don't care, I just want to be with you."

He nodded and gave her back one last rub before giving her shoulder a squeeze. "You got it."

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"I can't believe how big she's getting already," she said to Sookie, peering at her new sleeping daughter.

"I know," Sookie replied. "She's growing like a little weed."

Lorelai smiled and took one last glance at the baby before she and Sookie walked out of the nursery to the living room.

"Where's Jackson today?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, he took Davy for some quality father-son time. He's really worried about him being jealous of the baby."

Lorelai smiled. "One thing I never had the chance to do when growing up or ever had to deal with with my kid."

Sookie smiled. "Yet anyway."

Lorelai looked at her. "What?"

"I mean, you might have more kids still, right?" Sookie asked.

"Yes, but I highly doubt Rory will be jealous of a baby at her age."

"Well, if you have more than one, then they might be jealous of each other," Sookie reminded her.

"Oh, yeah, right," Lorelai agreed.

"I'm sorry, did I freak you out?" Sookie asked with concern. "I shouldn't have said that. Pretend I never said it!"

"No, Sookie, you didn't freak me out. I just…" she took a deep breath. "I proposed to Luke."

"What!" Sookie squealed. "Are you _engaged_? _You_ proposed?"

She smiled. "Yes, I proposed, and no, I'm not engaged."

Sookie frowned. "Oh no. He said no? There's no way he said no! Did you two break up again?"

Lorelai laughed. "He said no to the timing, and no, we didn't break up, he's been amazing lately."

"No to the timing?" Sookie asked.

"I proposed right after Rory moved in with my parents. You know that whole story already." Sookie nodded. "I came back to the diner and I was upset and then Luke just started going on and on about how _we_ were going to get Rory back into Yale and how he wasn't going to let this happen and it just hit me suddenly. 'What the hell are you waiting for, Lorelai, this is the man who's always been there for you and who will _always_ be there for you and who loves your daughter as if she was his own, and she might as well be his own anyway. He's never going to hurt you, he's always going to be on your side, he will _always_ be the one that you can trust, the one who makes everything okay' and I just asked him to marry me."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Wow," Sookie said. "So what happened?"

"He told me that it couldn't happen like this, when I was upset. He said to wait a while until things calm down, to take time to realize what I was asking him, and then let him know if I still want it."

"Do you still want it?"

"It's been less than a day, Sookie."

"That's enough time to change your mind!" she protested.

"Yes, I still want it," she said quietly. "More than ever. How long do you think I have to wait before I can tell him that I still want it? What if _he_ doesn't want it? What if he was trying to say no?" she asked suddenly.

"Lorelai, there is no way in the _world_ he would ever just say no because he didn't wan_t_ to marry you."

"I mean, of course he wondered what the hell I was thinking. I walked in there and was all upset about Rory and the next thing he knows I'm asking him to marry me."

Sookie sighed happily. "I can't believe you asked him!"

Lorelai smiled slightly, her panic wearing off. "I can't really believe it either."

"Well, he knows you're in the same place as him already anyhow, right?" Sookie asked. "I mean, it's not like this marriage thing came out of nowhere."

"Right," Lorelai said, and suddenly she was remembering the conversation with Sookie after she and Luke first kissed. _Did_ he know? "Then again…"

"Oh no," Sookie said. "He knows, right?"

"I think he knows. I don't know. He had this freak out at the inn the other day that… I don't know, I felt like... Maybe it's just me."

"He freaked out at the inn?"

"He was there to fix some things, that handyman of ours has _got_ to go, he never calls us back, and he saw this gift basket that Mike Armstrong sent me."

"Mike Armstrong sent you a gift basket?"

"Yeah. And Luke flipped out on me because he didn't know I met with Mike Armstrong. I thought he did, he was the one who told me to take the meeting, but I guess I never really did talk to him about the actual meeting after the fact. He kept asking me if I was going to take the job and where their offices are and about the travel involved. He was freaking out."

"Well, Lorelai, hello."

"Hello? Hello what?"

"He doesn't want to lose you! He doesn't want you to be far away all the time."

"But I'm not going to sell the inn and take the job."

"Well, sure, but do you think that Luke knows that if you haven't talked to him about the meetings and he sees a gift basket from Mike Armstrong?"

"He thinks I'd leave him for this job? He thinks I'd take a job that separated us all the time? Like my parents when I was growing up? I wouldn't do that."

"Just talk to him."

She sighed. "I just want him to say yes."

"Yes to your proposal?"

"Yes. I just want him to say yes and… you know, say yes," she said.

Sookie chuckled. "He will."

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Rory's car was in the driveway when she got home.

She sighed and took a deep breath before going inside. She had thought about turning around and leaving and coming back later when Rory was gone, but she knew she shouldn't have to tiptoe around Rory. Rory was the one who should have to tiptoe around her.

When she opened the door, Rory was on the other side.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, startled. "Mom. Hi."

"Rory," Lorelai said, her voice devoid of emotion.

"I just, uh, came to get some stuff," Rory said, indicating the box in her arms. "I'm on my way now. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," she said. "It's your stuff," she said with a shrug.

"Right. Uh, okay, uh, then… I'll see you," she said, hurrying towards the door. She turned back to look at Lorelai and opened her mouth, then shut it abruptly and hurried out the door.

Lorelai shook her head and sighed. When had things become such a mess?

Her daughter wasn't talking to her. She had nothing to say to her daughter. Rory had stood there, and she had had _nothing_ to say to her. Nothing. Not a word.

She wasn't talking to her parents. Again.

She had proposed to Luke and he hadn't said yes. Yet.

She needed Luke. That was all she knew.

The phone rang then. "Hello?" she said, snatching it up.

"Lorelai, it's your mother." _Oh, great_, she thought, _the day just keeps getting better and better._ She thought about hanging up, but she decided to be bigger than that this time.

"What can I do for you?"

"Lorelai, I know you're upset."

"Really? What tipped you off?"

"Would you just come over and talk to your father and me?"

"Why? What good does that do? I talk to you, I tell you what I need, what I need _help_ with. For once, I told you and Dad that I needed your help. In case you haven't noticed, I don't do that often, Mom. And I did it. And what happened? You disregarded it. What the hell good does talking to you do?"

"Lorelai, we need to let Rory make this choice. It's her choice to make and we have to respect that," Richard's voice chimed in.

"Dad?" she asked.

"I'm on the office extension," he told her.

"Oh."

"This is her choice, Lorelai," he repeated, "We have to respect her choice."

"I like your thinking," she said sarcastically. "Her choice, huh? She's twenty. I'm thirty-six. You can let Rory make the choice to drop out of school when she's clearly not thinking straight because she's upset, but you can't let _me_, who's thirty-six, make a choice about who I want to date and respect _that_?"

"You just won't drop this thing with Luke, will you?" Emily asked.

"I wonder why, Mom. I have to go."

"Lorelai, just wait."

"Please, just make sure Rory is okay. I have to go." She hung up and grabbed her keys, heading out of the house, not knowing where she was going until she got there.

Straight to Luke.

xxxxxxxxx

She went to the diner for dinner. Well, actually she got there way before dinner, but she hung around talking to Luke until she decided it was a reasonable time to eat.

As always, he gave her extra French fries, and a piece of pie on the house.

When she was done she pulled out her wallet. She hadn't tried this game in a while. She'd pretty much given up on paying him for food after their reconciliation.

"How much?"

"What?"

"How much for dinner?"

He looked at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head. "Since when do you pay me for dinner?"

"Well, I haven't paid in a long time, so…"

"Knock it off," he told her. She waved a twenty at him.

"More?"

"Lorelai. Cut it out. You're not paying."

"This is your business, Luke."

"We've used this argument before. Why are you suddenly bringing up the 'you have a desire to pay me' issue?"

"Because I realized how long it's been since I actually paid for a meal!"

"Lorelai, I can't take your money, okay?"

"Why not?" she asked with a look in her eye that told him something she thought was clever was coming. "It's not like we're married."

She hadn't said it harsh. She hadn't said it out of spite. She hadn't said it to make a point, and he knew it. She had said it playfully and teasingly, and he understood what that meant.

He knew that even though almost a day had passed, she still hadn't changed her mind. That she hadn't decided it was an unapproachable subject anymore. That she hadn't wished she had never said it and prayed it the topic wouldn't come up again to save her embarrassment. In fact, for Lorelai to joke about it, he knew she was far from regretting it. To use it as a source of humor meant that she was completely comfortable with the idea.

He shook his head, refused her money again and gave her coffee to shut her up.

xxxxxxxxxx

She spent the night with Luke, of course. Just like always. She woke up to find his side of the bed empty, as she often did, and got up and got dressed. She went down to the diner for breakfast, as always. She took her time ordering, which frustrated Luke, as always.

She went to work, as always, and Michel whined, as always. Michel informed her that her mother called, and she nodded and threw the message in the trash. For a moment she thought maybe she should call her mother back. What if something had happened to Rory?

Then she knew that was just what her mother wanted her to think. She knew that her mother knew that she would worry about Rory and she'd get her on the phone that way. She was smarter than that, so she threw the message in the trash and went on about her day.

She hated that her parents had that kind of power over her now. That they knew what was going on with Rory and she didn't. That she _had_ to go through them, had to call them, if she was concerned about Rory.

But she figured that if anything truly important had happened, her mother would have called more than once, two hours earlier.

She decided to up her mood by bothering Michel. She sure missed having Sookie around all day at times like this.

"Lorelai, phone for you," Michel said.

"Who is it?" she asked in a whisper, afraid it was her mother. Or maybe her father. Who knew.

"Mr. Armstrong."

"Oh," Lorelai frowned and took the phone. "Hello?"

"Lorelai? It's Mike Armstrong."

"Oh, hi Mike," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I was hoping I could get an answer out of you about that offer."

She took a deep breath and looked around the room. Michel, arguing with a guest in the lobby. The kitchen, where normally Sookie would be cooking away. The inn she had built from scratch.

The front porch where Luke had kissed her for the first time.

"Oh, right," she told him. "I meant to call you sooner, Mike, but things have been crazy and—"

"Don't apologize, Lorelai, we understand. Things like this take time."

"Yes, they do. And I don't think I've had enough of it yet."

"I'm sorry, what's that?"

"I'm sorry, Mike, no. I'm not interested."

She put the phone back in its cradle a moment later. Michel looked at her.

"What?" she asked him. He suddenly gave her a hug. "Whoa, whoa, what's this?"

"Thank you for not selling the inn," he stated calmly, pulling away from her and brushing his suit off.

"Why would I?" she asked. "I'm perfectly happy right here."

xxxxxxxxxx

That night Lorelai had been thinking about her decision to turn Mike Armstrong down.

She knew she loved her inn. She knew she loved Michel, grumpy and irritable as he may be. She knew she loved having Sookie right there to gossip with and talk to anytime during the day. She knew she loved her life. She knew she loved Luke and she knew she loved having him so close by whenever she needed him. What on Earth would she do if she was about to break down while on the other side of the country? Not go running to Luke. And then there was Rory. Though they weren't exactly seeing much of each other now, she didn't want to be millions of miles away from her daughter, either.

She was perfectly happy and she knew it.

Only one little thing was left to tackle. Besides the whole Rory issue, that was.

She sat on Luke's bed, dressed in his flannel shirt, watching him walk out of the bathroom and to the bed.

"Luke?"

"What?"

"You know my proposal was sincere," she told him. "Right?"

"Lorelai, I—"

"You need to know this," she told him. "I need you to know this. It had nothing to do with Rory or my parents or me being upset. I just had a realization at that moment and I asked you. Maybe it wasn't the best moment to have an epiphany, but what can you do. I promise, it was sincere."

"I know," he said.

"Do you? Do you understand that the last thing I would ever do just because I was upset would be to propose if I didn't mean it? That would only cause me more stress."

"Lorelai, I know. I know it was sincere," he said, "and you have no idea how badly I wanted to answer."

"So why didn't you?"

"Because things with Rory… I mean, think about it. You can't just call her up and tell her you're engaged. You should be able to share it with her."

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"I should have proposed," he added. "You should have had a special proposal."

"I did," she told him, looking at him with confidence. "_Me_ asking _you_ was huge for me. That alone made this proposal special."

"But…"

"Look. I don't need a special proposal. You know why? Because you're special enough. You've done a million special things for me. You built me a chuppah. You brought me an ice rink. You've already fulfilled your quota of special things."

"But those weren't—"

"I'm not letting you propose. I proposed already. Our proposal is a done deal. I just need an answer," she told him seriously.

"Lorelai…"

"You told me to tell you if and when I was sure I still wanted this. I am. I'm sure. I want this. Okay? So I'm telling you. Not once in the past two days have I thought it was a mistake to ask you. All I've felt is a desire for you to say yes. That's all. I want this, and I'm sure of it. So, now it's my turn to tell _you_ that when _you_'re ready, _you_ tell _me_ your answer. We're just waiting on your answer now."

He looked at her, noticing the sincerity and determination in her eyes, surprised at how forceful and determined she was being. _Then again, she's always been determined when she really wants something. _He paused, realizing what he had just thought. She wanted it. She really and truly wanted it for no other reason than because she had just realized she wanted it. He nodded. "Okay, I'll let you know."

She nodded and smiled at him warmly before she flopped down on the bed, pulling the blankets over her. He followed suit and climbed under the blankets, pulling her close to him. She smiled and sighed contentedly. "Thank you, Luke. I love you."

He wanted to tell her yes. He wanted to just whisper it in her ear right then. He almost did. Instead, he told her that he loved her too.

She wouldn't let him propose, but he maybe he could still surprise her. Maybe he could have a little fun with his answer.

The next morning he got up before Lorelai, as always, and got ready for work. Before slipping out of the apartment he glanced at her to make sure she was still sleeping. When he was sure she was, he walked over to his dresser drawer and pulled out the small black velvet box that had been there for years. He took it and gently set it on his pillow, hoping that she wouldn't knock it off the bed and never find it.

Then he went down to the diner to open up.

xxxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued…

I just wanted to say I'm sorry if any parts of my story become similar to parts of anyone else's. Like I said before, I've read so many it's hard for me to remember what's my idea and what's been planted in my head by someone else. Plus, I think a lot of us are on the same path idea wise with these lol. Thanks for reading!


	2. Part 2

Wanting It

Part 2

Here's the next part. I actually finished this one before the first part, lol, so I put them both up at the same time. Might take me a while for part 3 to come to me. This part was a result of being bored in class. So glad I'm paying for these college courses where I start writing parts of fanfics in the middle of lectures.

**Disclaimer**: Still not mine, sadly.

She burst down the stairs to the diner and looked around. No Luke anywhere, damnit. Caesar, of course, pouring coffee at the table next to the window, but no Luke. She frowned and glanced around, her eyes landing on the storeroom. Without hesitation she marched in.

There he was, unpacking a box of pickles as if nothing special was going on. She had had enough trouble getting dressed so she could march down the stairs.

"What's this?" she asked, holding out the black velvet box. Somehow her noisy entrance hadn't startled him. He had been expecting her, of course. He turned to face her slowly and crossed his arms across his chest.

"You tell me."

"Luuuke," she whined. She looked like she was about to cry from anticipation. "What is this?" she asked again softly.

"My answer," he said simply.

"Your answer," she repeated softly.

"You know, when you propose, you're supposed to have a ring. Hate to be critical, but…"

She laughed at this and looked down at the box in her hand. "Oh. Sorry."

They stared at each other for a long moment.

"You have an answer now?"

"Yes."

"This is your answer?"

"Yes.

"Your answer is yes?"

"Yes."

"You're saying yes, you want to marry me?"

He grinned this time. "Yes."

She grinned back at him and let out an excited squeal before throwing her arms tightly around his neck. She moved to kiss him, but he stopped her, and she looked at him, confused. He took the box from her hand and popped it open and pulled the ring out.

She watched him intently as he prepared to put the ring on her finger. "I think I'm going to cry," she said softly, wiping her eyes and sniffling.

"I think you already are," he told her gently. "Now you were the one who proposed so I won't steal your moment by asking again," he told her. "And besides, you told me I wasn't allowed to."

She laughed through the tears that were threatening to fall. "Marry me?" she asked it for him.

He chuckled. "Yes," he told her, sliding the ring on her finger.

She grinned and looked down at it happily. "It's beautiful."

"It was my mother's," he told her.

"Oh, Luke," she said softly, moving her hand to admire the ring.

"Fits?" he asked her.

"Perfectly," she said.

"Good," he smiled and she threw her arms around him and attempted to kiss him again and this time he didn't try to stop her. He was vaguely aware that they were violating a lot of health codes, but he couldn't really bring himself to care as Lorelai's lips attacked his again and again.

"Luke!" Caesar's voice called.

Luke and Lorelai pulled apart and shared a disappointed, guilty and yet happy smile.

"Coming!" Luke called to Caesar. "This is why you don't do things like this at work," he told Lorelai.

She laughed. "Go. We'll celebrate later. And celebrate, and celebrate," she said in a low voice, giving him a grin. "And then celebrate some more."

He flashed her another smile. "You bet we will." He started to head out the door when she stopped him, grabbing his arm.

"Should I go out there?"

"Unless you want to live in here the rest of your life."

"No," she waved her left hand at him. "Should I go _out_ there?"

"Oh," he realized.

"Once the right person sees, it's as good as announced."

"Well, they _are_ going to find out one day," he reasoned.

"Alright," she agreed, "here we go." She gave him a push towards the door and followed him out into the diner. They both stopped when they noticed Patty.

"It's out," he told her in a whisper before sliding behind the counter. She followed him on the other side of the counter. "Coffee?" he asked.

"Please," she said as a peaceful feeling washed over her. Coffee. Luke. Luke's coffee. For the rest of her life.

She watched as he filled a to go cup with coffee, then watched her left hand as she grasped it around the cup, the ring sparkling.

"See you later," she told him softly before leaning across the counter to kiss him. She turned to leave and noticed Patty staring.

"Lorelai," she greeted smugly, a smile on her lips and a knowing look on her face.

"Patty," she replied, giving her a purposeful wave with her left hand. Boy was it awkward to wave with her left hand.

Then she slipped out the door a second later, taking her first sip of Luke's coffee as prepared by her fiancée.

They day drew on, and Lorelai found herself at Doose's on a run to pick up carrots and tomatoes. Apparently, Jackson was a little sleep deprived these days (two kids under the age of two could do that to you, she supposed) and had been messing up the produce orders.

"And Caroline Smith bought a new car," she heard Babette's voice on the opposite aisle as she looked through the vegetables.

"You don't say. That woman just goes through cars like I go through men," Patty's voice responded. Both the women laughed and Lorelai shook her head in amusement.

"Arnold Martin was out on the town with another woman," Babette added. "Sexy little number."

"Oh, have you heard?" Patty asked suddenly. "Lorelai's got a sparkly little ring on her left hand." Lorelai rolled her eyes, but smiled at being the topic of gossip. She also found it amusing how 'sexy little number' immediately reminded Patty of her. Maybe the ring on her finger was the sexy little number? Lorelai wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know which one Patty thought was sexy anyway.

Babette gasped. "No kiddin'!"

"I saw it myself this morning. You know how it is. When a single woman of marriageable age who is in a relationship walks in, you _have _to check her left hand. That's how you get the news first. So I glanced at Lorelai's today, and low and behold, there it was."

"About time," Babette added. "Wonder why Luke backed out of his deal with Taylor, then?" she added.

Lorelai frowned and moved so she could hear them better.

"Yeah, that was _strange_. He went through all that trouble to secure the Twickham house, he competed for it against Kirk, then he just gave it up? I it was Luke's dream to own that house if he ever had a family."

"You shoulda seen him!" Babette added, apparently the witness to this gossip. "He just ran out there to Taylor and told him to forget about the house, he didn't want it anymore. As if Lorelai had told him she didn't want to marry him or she didn't want the house or she didn't want kids or a family or somethin'. I mean, he had that house and he just gave it up! He knew Kirk would go after it the minute he let go of it, he musta been sure about what he was doing."

Lorelai's mouth dropped open as she tried to take all of this in. She put the bag of carrots down and hurried out of the store, careful to make sure neither Patty or Babette saw her sneak out.

She stopped outside and glanced towards Luke's. Then she turned the other way and noticed Kirk standing in the town square. She marched over to him.

"Kirk."

"Oh, hi Lorelai," he said.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. I might not have an answer, though."

"That's okay. I think you will. Is it true that you were competing with Luke to buy the Twickham House?"

Kirk looked afraid suddenly. "Are you going to yell at me like Luke did?"

"No, no, I just wanted to be sure. That you were competing with _Luke_ to _buy_ the _house_."

"Yes, that's pretty much what happened. Luke won, though. I offered more money, but we went to those damn town elders and they took Luke's side."

"You went to the town elders!" she asked. "You _and_ Luke?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Met them in the steam room. Luke wouldn't even take his clothes off, either. And still, the elders chose him to buy the house! Personally, I think they had a little too much steam in there, it was clouding their judgment, making them dizzy." He paused. "Congratulations, about the house though."

Kirk apparently didn't know Luke had given it up yet.

She frowned. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks," she called, wandering off.

She wasn't sure what to do. She completely realized that Luke had been buying a house without talking to her about it first. Which was not good, at all. He hadn't even thought about the fact that she might not want to move. So if she went to Luke's, she might yell at him.

She also realized his intentions behind the buying of the house, and she was pretty sure she knew why he gave it up.

Had it really been something he wanted so badly?

And then she saw him. Taylor. Standing outside the Soda Shoppe. Without thinking, she went up to him.

"Lorelai," he greeted.

"I need the house."

"What house?" he asked her.

"The Twickham house."

Taylor put his head in his hands and groaned as if he couldn't believe it. "God. Not you, too. I swear, you and Luke are going to be the death of me. I was just about to call Kirk and tell him the house is his if he signs the papers."

"I know he gave it up, but can you just please, please, not give it to Kirk yet?"

"Lorelai, I can't do that. I already waited a few days in case Luke was diagnosed with some crazy mental disease and wanted it back once he returned to normal. But I don't think that's the case, I think he was in his right mind. Luke said—"

"I know, I know what he said and I know why he said it. It's all my fault and I didn't even realize what I was doing. I upset him by accident and that's why he changed his mind. I didn't even realize… I didn't know that... well, basically, I'm an idiot," she said. "Please."

"You want to buy it?" he asked her.

"No. No, I don't have money to _buy_ it," she told him.

"Well then I can't do anything. Kirk is willing to put up a nice amount of money for the house. Even more money than Luke. And so—"

She shook her head. "No. You owe him! You owe me!"

"What?"

"He has done so many things for this town and you know it. He may be grumpy and he may not be the easiest person to have as your landlord, but he has put in his fair share of time into this town. And so have I! All those festivals, costumes for plays, sets for plays—at a school _neither_ one of us have a kid at, by the way. I've gone to town meetings and made costumes and ornaments and decorations. Rory's put her fair share of time into this town, too, and I think that I should get some kind of credit for her efforts, too, because, hey, she's my kid. You even discussed our relationship at a town meeting! Just, please, do us both a favor in return for everything we've ever done and put up with."

"Lorelai, look, it's a matter of—"

"The ribbons!" she told him. "You owe us for that."

"For what?"

"The ribbons."

"What ribbons?"

"You know what ribbons!" she shouted. "Your stupid blue and pink ribbons that _broke us up_. You owe us for that."

"My ribbons didn't break you two up. The ribbons were a result _of_ the break up."

"No, no, no. The ribbons did it. We weren't broken up when you started with the ribbons. Luke and I wouldn't have broken up if I hadn't pushed him to talk when he wasn't ready. And I wouldn't have pushed him to talk if the ribbons hadn't freaked me out!"

Taylor sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"Tomorrow. Just, wait until after tomorrow before you do anything. If Luke doesn't want to change his mind about the house after tomorrow, then go ahead and offer it to Kirk. Just, please, hold off until after tomorrow."

Taylor sighed. "Fine. What's one more day?"

"Thank you!" she said, hurrying off again.

"But I don't want to hear one more peep about the ribbons!"

xxxxxxxxxx

"I think I just did something completely insane," Lorelai said when Sookie opened her door.

"What? What did you do?" Sookie asked, gesturing for Lorelai to come in.

"Luke bought the Twickham house," she told Sookie.

"He what!"

"He bought it. He wanted it, he apparently always dreamed of having that house if he had a family, he fought Kirk for it, and he bought it."

"You didn't kill Luke, did you?"

Lorelai looked at her. "What?"

"You said you did something completely insane…"

"No, I didn't _kill_ him, Sookie."

"Then what did you do?"

"I was in Doose's and I heard Patty and Babette talking. They said that Luke backed out of the deal with the house. That he went up to Taylor and told him to forget about the house as if _I_ told him something to make him back out. As if I told him I didn't want the house, or to marry him, or kids."

Sookie frowned. "So he doesn't have the house?"

"He backed out because of me and my mulling nonsense. What I said at the inn, about considering the job offer. When we were arguing about it he suddenly blurted out 'what about the kids?'"

"What kids?"

"That's what I said. 'What kids?' And then he got this weird look on his face, grabbed the key from my hand and went up to go fix the window in room three."

"Did you follow him?"

"No. You know how Luke gets, you can't push him when he doesn't want to talk. He came out later, fixed the banister, and then he kissed me and left. Then Rory dropped the dropping out of Yale bomb on me and I forgot about Luke and his freak out."

"So this relates to the house because…"

"He was talking about _our_ kids," she said. "He thought that I was just going to leave him and that I didn't want all the things he wanted. That I wouldn't want to have a family with him or be here with him," she said softly. "It killed me, Sookie. It killed me to think that for a few days I had made Luke think that. It broke my heart. Because I do want all those things with him. I can't believe I didn't see why he was freaking out. I'm so dense sometimes, I swear."

"So where does the insane thing come in?"

"I went to Taylor and begged him not to give the house to Kirk."

"The Twickham house?"

She nodded. "Yes. Is that completely insane or what? Luke does this _huge_ thing without me. He doesn't consult me, he doesn't even know if I'm up for this. Doesn't say _one word_ about it to me. And granted, I haven't talked to him yet so I know nothing for a fact, but shouldn't I be mad about this?"

"Well…"

"But I mean, I can see his intentions behind this. It was a _huge_ gesture, and you know that's how Luke does things. He lets his actions speak. He bought me a _house_. For us, and our family. That says _a lot_ in Luke speak."

Sookie grinned. "It is kind of romantic."

"I'm confused. Should I be touched? Angry? I don't know."

"You gotta go with your gut feeling," she said. "And if that's to make sure that Kirk doesn't get that house, well, then, I think you know where you stand."

She sighed. "You're right."

"Have you talked to Luke?"

"No, I was so confused at first, you know? I was surprised and I didn't know if I should be mad or what. I was on edge and if I had gone to the diner I would have yelled at him, I'm sure. Even if I hadn't intended to. And," she waved her left hand at her, "I didn't want to do that on the day we officially got engaged."

Sookie squealed. "Oh my God! How could you not have shown me that the minute you got here!" Lorelai laughed and let Sookie examine her hand. "It's beautiful!"

Lorelai smiled. "I know."

"Oh, you two are going to be so happy!"

Lorelai smiled again. "I know."

"When did this happen?"

"This morning."

Sookie sighed. "Ah, I feel like it's the end of a fairytale. _Finally_, Luke and Lorelai got it together and got engaged."

Lorelai laughed. "Oh please."

"So what are you going to do about the house?"

"Hey, if Luke thinks _he_ can surprise me with things like that, I can have my fun, too."

Sookie laughed. "Seems fair to me."

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai was perched on the arm of Luke's couch, waiting for him to come upstairs from the diner. He had been arguing with Kirk over the total of Kirk's bill, again, and Lorelai had decided to avoid the situation all together, afraid Kirk would say something to her about her earlier conversation with him. So she went upstairs. _Is this how Luke has been sneaking around the past few weeks?_ she wondered.

She was so into her thoughts that she hadn't heard Luke come in. She jumped when he spoke to her.

"Lorelai."

"Oh, God!" she screamed, putting her hand over her heart. "You scared me."

He laughed. "Sorry. Heaven forbid I come into _my _apartment, where you are _waiting_ for me and say something to you."

She laughed. "Shut up."

He walked up to her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. She had never taken Luke for a brush-your-hair-out-of-your-face kind of guy, but she had to admit that she loved it when he did it. Oh, who was she kidding? She loved it whenever Luke touched her. Anywhere. _Dirty_, she thought and a giggle escaped.

Luke narrowed his eyes at her. "What?"

She smiled. "Nothing, just thinking." She paused and held up her left hand so he could see it. "What do you think?"

"Of your hand?"

"I've been staring at it all day. You know, grab a paper, glance at my hand. Take a sip of coffee, glance at my hand. Put my fingers on the keyboard, glance at my hand. Hand a guest a room key, glance at my hand."

He took her hand and kissed her finger. "I'm a fan of the ring."

She giggled. "I hope so. I know you love looking at it, seeing me grab a cup of coffee and you think 'that ring is so sexy. I put that ring there. That ring means she's mine forever.'"

He smirked. "The 'mine forever' part sometimes scares me."

She shook her head. "You're losing points with me _fast._"

"Really. Well, I think I can gain them back."

"Oh you do, do you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Mmhmm," he said, moving towards her and kissing her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gasped as he pushed her back off the arm of the couch and onto the couch cushions, him falling on top of her.

"Sheesh, Luke, try to kill me," she laughed.

"Killing you not helping with the points?" he asked.

She laughed heartily. "No, not so much." He kissed her and she moaned against his lips. "Doing better."

"Thought so," he mumbled against her lips, moving his line of kisses down to her chest and then up her neck to her ear.

"Luke," she said. "I have a surprise for you."

He stopped kissing her momentarily and looked at her. "Is this a trick?"

She shook her head, her arms still wrapped around his neck. "No. Surprise. Tomorrow. Come to the inn."

"Can't you just bring it to me?"

"No, it's kind of big. We have to go to it."

"And it's at the inn?"

"No. Just meet me there and I'll take you to it."

He shrugged. "Alright, fine. I'll meet you at the inn sometime tomorrow."

"Good." She tilted her head up to kiss him again, running her tongue over his bottom lip. "Luke?"

"What?" he asked, pausing to look in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry."

"For what?" he asked softly, concern in his eyes at her sad tone.

"I've been horrible lately," she said, "the job offer and the 'mulling' and making you think that I didn't want the things you wanted. Letting you think I was going to take that job and leave you and… I didn't mean to make you think that. I didn't mean to make you think I would _ever_ put a job above our relationship, especially if the job would put our relationship in jeopardy."

"Lorelai—" he said seriously, trying to shift to move off of her but she kept her arms securely around his neck. "Listen, you don't ever give up an opportunity, an amazing job, anything you want to do, because of me."

"No, no, Luke," she said. "I didn't. I never wanted that job. I never wanted to leave _my_ inn or you. I liked them sending me free stuff and the fact that someone _wanted_ me for something. I liked being important."

"You're sure that you really don't want that job?"

She nodded. "I already turned it down," she added. "Yesterday." He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "We're both really independent, you know that?" she said. She could tell he was confused at her sudden topic change. "It's always been that way. Because of this we have a lack of communication at times. Remember Nicole, Jason?" she said, feeling him stiffen at the mention of Nicole. "But you know, I realized that it's not my life anymore. It's our life now. You and me, we share a life, Luke. I mean, it will happen officially when we get married, but it's been unofficial for a while. Not telling you about things that are going to affect _our_ life is wrong," she said. "I should have told you that I went to a meeting with Mike Armstrong, I should have been clear that I wasn't going to take that job. I just assumed you knew these things, because that's how we operate. I have to tell you things… I can't be independent anymore. I have to tell you when," she took a deep breath, "when I think for a night that I might be pregnant with your child, even if it turned out that I wasn't."

"_What_?" he asked her, his eyes widening in surprise.

"A few weeks ago I thought I was pregnant. As a result of our little limo night escapades. I wasn't, I'm not, and since I wasn't and since it passed so quickly, I didn't tell you. I should have. You need to know that kind of stuff."

"You're not," he confirmed. "You're sure?"

She nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Lorelai—"

"I just… I want this to work. I love you so much and I don't want to have stupid little problems, dumb fights, just because we don't tell each other things. I don't want to end up in trouble twenty years from now because we didn't tell each other something today. I mean, you're my best friend. I can talk to you about anything. Talking is a strength of mine as you well know. I should utilize all this."

He nodded. "Okay, then I—"

She stopped him. "No."

"What?"

"This is going to sound _so_ hypocritical, but don't tell me."

"You're really losing me here."

"I know what you're going to say. I think. And because of that, just wait until after tomorrow. You'll see, trust me. And if you still feel you have things to tell me after tomorrow, then by all means, tell me. But just wait."

He looked at her. "But I really don't think you know what—"

"Luke, trust me. Please."

He sighed. "Okay, alright."

"Now," she said, grinning at him. "Even though I'm preaching the talking tonight, let's stop for a while," she said, pulling him down to her and taking over his lips with her own.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear.

She grinned and kissed him softly. "I love you too," she replied.

"Forever," he told her.

"What?" she asked breathlessly as he trailed kisses across her chest and around the edge of her shirt.

"You're mine. Forever."

She smiled. "Mmhmm. Forever." And with that she leaned up to kiss him again.

xxxxxxxxxx

To Be Continued… again. ;)

I'll bring Rory (and Richard and Emily and maybe Logan) back into it soon. Just need to get this important Luke and Lorelai stuff figured out. ;) I wanted to have them go longer before getting engaged but I just couldn't do it. :P So there you have it. Part 3 coming soon, hopefully!


	3. Part 3

Wanting It

Part 3

My only A/N is to promote the Help Give Lauren Graham an Emmy campaign/donations. To find out what it is and how to donate, visit the Gilmore Girls section of fanforumdotcom and look for the GG FYC Awards Campaign thread. Every little bit helps!

Okay, I lied, a second AN. I know nothing about trials and whatnot, lol. Even though I almost had to have one myself (shh!) when I was sixteen. So bare with me here. And I don't know if Rory and Logan would have the same trial together or two different ones, but I asked around and people said it could be either way, but I don't think they really know. So they're having one together, for the story's sake.

xxxxxxxxxx

It was a slow day at the inn, and Lorelai was slumped over the desk, where she was covering for Michel who should have been back from lunch ten minutes ago. She was just starting to contemplate going to Luke's to get something to eat herself when Luke walked into the inn. She straightened up immediately and flashed him a smile.

"Hey!"

"Hey," he said. "I see you're busy."

She shrugged lightly. "Yeah, you know how it goes." She noticed Michel try to sneak in the front door of the inn. "Michel you're late!"

"I'm sorry. I see it's extremely busy here at the moment, I don't know how you survived without me."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving, I'll be back in a little while."

"Where are you going?" he asked with a frown.

"Out!" she told him, heading around the desk and to Luke. Michel opened his mouth to speak. "I don't want to hear it," she added and Michel frowned before looking down at some papers on the desk.

"So, I take it you're here for your surprise?" she asked, grasping Luke's hand and pulling him toward the door.

"I guess so," he agreed with a frown. "Though this whole surprise thing is really a little unnerving."

She shook her head. "Just come on," she said. "We're walking there, it's not far from here."

He shrugged and let her pull him down the stairs. "Lorelai," he groaned as she picked up the pace. "Slow down. When was the last time you ever walked this fast?"

She chuckled. "Come on, keep up," she said, tugging on his hand but slowing down the pace just a bit. "This is exciting."

"If we're going to some place that has the world's best coffee then—"

"Nooo, we're not," she mocked. "Besides, that's the diner and that wouldn't be a very good surprise for you now, would it?"

He gave up and let her pull him along.

xxxxxxxxx

"Are we there yet?" he whined a few blocks later.

"Almost, almost."

"Please don't tell me we're going to Sookie's."

"Of course we're not."

"You say that as if we weren't right in front of Sookie's house."

"God, Luke, whine whine whine."

"Are we at least close?" he asked, trying to ignore all the thoughts that came with the Twickham house that was looming in the distance.

"Very close," she confirmed. He let his eyes drift towards the Twickham house and noted that Kirk must have it securely in his grasp by now. He suddenly wished he hadn't been so hasty in telling Taylor to forget about the house. But he knew it was for the best. After all, had he been insane not talking to Lorelai about the house first? Especially after everything they had discussed last night, about talking to each other and telling each other everything. It was best that it hadn't happened.

Lost in his thoughts, he kept walking but bumped into Lorelai who had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"What are you doing?" he asked her with a frown.

"We're here."

"Where?"

She sighed, trying to act annoyed. "To your surprise," she said. "Would you keep up already?" She felt her heart beat faster and she was suddenly nervous. Were her palms sweating? She was glad she had finally let go of Luke's hand.

"Where's the surprise?"

She gave him a knowing look and glanced at the house. He raised his eyebrows and then turned to look at her.

"What? You… know? I didn't—I mean, this isn't… I backed out of it."

She nodded and bit her lip. "I know. And I backed into it."

"What?"

"You backed out of the house—"

"And now it's probably Kirk's," he interrupted her. "Which is a scary thought. But it's not mine anymore, which is for the best because I should have talked to you about it before I did anything anyway."

"It's not Kirk's yet. However, if you don't go to Taylor today and tell him you still want the house, it may be Kirk's tomorrow."

He looked at her for a moment then took her hand, pulling her to the steps of the house where he sat down and pulled her to sit next to him. "What's going on?"

"I found out that you had bought the house. Patty and Babette found out, I guess, and well, need I say more? Kirk confirmed that you and him had been battling for it, and Taylor confirmed that you backed out of it. And I just… I knew why you backed out, Luke," she said softly. He held her gaze for a moment then looked down. "And I felt horrible for making you think that I wasn't, well, that I wouldn't want everything you wanted. So I begged Taylor not to give it to Kirk and here we are."

"What the hell did you say to Taylor?" he asked. "It took me weeks of begging and being nice to him to get him to give it to me in the first place."

"I reminded him of a bunch of pretty little ribbons he passed out to the town a couple months ago," she said with a knowing smile.

He laughed a little and raised his eyebrows. "Well done."

"Thank you," she said with a laugh.

"Lorelai—"

"I know," she said. "We have to talk about this."

"Don't feel like you have to do this. Don't feel like you have to move. I know your house is your home and it has memories, so—"

"Yeah. It does. But you know what? The Independence Inn had memories, too. And I moved on from that. Though that was taken from me and I didn't really have a choice, but the point is… that sometimes you have to move on. Sure, you could move in with me. That would be good, too."

"It would," he agreed.

"_But_," she continued, "I want a house that's ours. Completely. You know? Where we argue about how to decorate each room. Where I bother you about curtains for the living room and we argue about where in our bedroom to put our bed."

"Sure. Lots of arguing is good," he joked, playing with a leaf that was on the step.

"And my house is small," she added. "And we're bordering on territory that we again, need to talk about, but judging by something you said the other day at the inn, I'm thinking we might want more space. For, you know, another bedroom or two."

He looked up at her. "We might."

"So?" she asked.

"So what?"

"So, are you going to go and talk to Taylor?"

"We don't have to rush into this," he added, "I want you to be sure. You should talk to Rory about this," he noticed her wince at Rory's name, "and you should have time to think it over. Or, maybe you want another house, it doesn't have to be this one…"

"Luke."

"What?"

"Go to Taylor."

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't sure." He nodded, then looked behind them at the house. She followed his gaze and smiled at him. "Our house," she said.

"Our house," he agreed.

"_If_ you go talk to Taylor," she added. She looked at him for a moment and then threw her arms around him. "Everything is coming together, huh?"

He laughed a little. "Yeah."

"I think we're growing up."

"Possibly."

"I love you."

He grinned. "I love you too," he whispered in her ear, causing her to grin.

"Okay, so this is it. No more not telling each other stuff. And that includes buying houses."

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should have—"

She stopped him by placing a finger on his lips. "Stop. I know. Just, no more, okay? And I won't get go get houses _back_ for us and keep that a secret anymore either," she teased.

"It's a deal."

She giggled. "Taylor. Now."

xxxxxxxxxx

Later that night he watched her walk out of the diner. He was surprised. Impressed. He was impressed that for the most part, she seemed happy.

And it wasn't that she _seemed_ happy in the sense that she was putting on a front, trying not to let anyone see that underneath everything she was hurting. He was sure she was hurting by the whole Rory and her parents' situation. But the happy manner in which she had been acting lately was genuine and he knew it. He could always see through her, could always tell when she said she was okay and she was and when she said she was okay and she wasn't.

As far as he knew, she hadn't seen or talked to Rory other than the brief moment where she and Rory passed at their house. She had told him that she knew Rory had come back again because more things seemed to be gone from her room, but apparently Rory had planned the time of the trip better this time and hadn't ran into her mother.

But it didn't seem to bother her for some reason. Maybe she was too hurt to worry about the fact that Rory hadn't called her. Maybe she was too happy about the engagement to let it really get to her. Maybe she just shut it all out and pretended it didn't exist. He wasn't quite sure. But he knew that most of the time, she wasn't letting it bother her. There were the moments when Rory's name would come up and he could see the pain on her face, and the moments where she just seemed to be sad. But they went just as quickly as they came.

The phone rang and he snatched it up after putting a plate down in front of Kirk. "Luke's." There was silence on the other end and he frowned. "Hello?"

"Luke?"

_Uh oh_, he thought. "Rory?" he asked carefully.

"Uh, yeah. Hi," she said softly.

"Hi," he replied. There was silence again and he wondered if she was waiting for him to say something. That certainly didn't seem right.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, finally, sure that she was but mostly to get the conversation moving.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm here, in my grandparents' pool house," she added, sounding a bit sad.

"Right," he said. "I know."

She laughed a little. "Of course. Sorry." The silence again. "So, uh, are _you_ okay?"

"I'm fine," he told her, taking the coffee pot and refilling the cup of coffee belonging to the customer sitting next to Kirk.

"And, uh, is…" Rory took a deep breath. "Is she okay?"

Luke sighed and put the coffeepot down. "I don't want to get into the middle of this."

"I know, I know," Rory said apologetically. "It's just that I haven't seen her or talked to her and I was just afraid that… I don't know. Does she hate me?"

"Of course she doesn't hate you, Rory."

"But she seemed so upset."

"She doesn't want you to make a mistake."

"And she seemed so hurt."

"She was hurt. She _is_ hurt, I think. Why don't you just talk to her?"

"I wouldn't know what to say. I don't know what to do, where to begin…"

"You've never had any problems talking to her in the past."

"But…" Rory sighed, then changed her mind. "It's okay, never mind. I was just wondering."

"She's okay," he told her, giving in. "She's hurt, deep down in there somewhere. She was really upset at first, but lately she's been happy. And not that fake _pretending_ to be happy stuff she does, I think it's genuine. But make no mistake, she misses you and she hates all this."

Rory sighed sadly. "I hate it too."

"Just talk to her," Luke advised.

"I don't know. Maybe." There was silence again and Luke sighed.

"Are you really going to drop out of Yale?"

"Just for a year. Not forever."

"You really should reconsider it."

"There's no point. I'm lost. I don't know what I want to do anymore, so there's no point in wasting my time at Yale twiddling my thumbs."

"Well, if your mother can't talk you out of it, I don't think I can. So I'm not going to try. But Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"If you need _anything_," he told her. "I'm here."

"I know," she said with what seemed to be a smile for the first time, "thanks."

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai walked into her house the next night and put her keys down on the desk. She turned around to find Luke. She gasped in surprise and put her hand over her chest.

"You scared me!" she said with a laugh.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"It's okay," she said, removing her hand. She smiled at him. "Actually, I like it that you're here when I get home. I think this whole marriage thing might work out."

He smiled and kissed her quickly. "Good to know."

"What are you doing here anyway?" she asked. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I came to fix your bathroom sink," he told her with a grumble.

She gasped, excited. "And did you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, all fixed. Just try and keep your hair out of it this time. Even though I know I've told you that a million times before, please, consider taking my advice this time."

She laughed. "My hero!" she told him, throwing her arms around him. "Thanks." She pulled away a minute later and looked at him, keeping her arms looped around his neck. "I missed you today. I didn't see you this morning and I didn't get to come to the diner in the middle of the day because of the stupid meeting."

"How was it?" he asked, following her to the kitchen where she retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Eh, not bad," she said with a shrug. "Sookie will be excited that we're officially allowed to have lunch again. We're pretty much on track with our income and for a first year we did pretty well. So I guess we're coming back for another year," she joked. "Season two."

"Good. Good year."

She smiled a little. "Definitely a good year," she agreed giving him a knowing look. "So, I take it you talked to Taylor."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"And?"

"Everything is good."

"So he let you have the house back with no problems?"

"_Minimal_ problems," Luke corrected.

"Good. Didn't want to have to make him cry," she said, putting her bottle of water down on the counter. "So we have a house?"

He nodded and grinned. "Yeah. We do."

"Wow."

"Of course, it needs a lot of work," he added. "I mean, you saw how that cannonball fell right through the floor. A lot has to be done to it."

She nodded. "Right, makes sense. Because I sure would hate to be the next thing that falls through _our_ floor." She emphasized 'our' and then grinned. "You hear that? We have a floor. You and I have a floor. Together, we have a floor."

He shook his head in amusement. "You really are something."

"Yeah, well, I'm _your_ something." She paused and thought for a moment. "So the house needs work?" He nodded. "How long is it gonna take?"

"It's hard to say right now," he said, "a little while, though."

"So in the meantime are you just going to live in your apartment?"

"Well, I do prefer it to the street."

"Live with me," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"You don't have to move _everything_ here, since we're eventually both going to move anyway, but you can just bring the things you need and leave the rest of the stuff in your apartment until we move." He stared at her for a moment, so she continued. "You know, good practice. And, um, I hate being apart from you. This way there's no off nights where we're separated."

"Okay," he stated, "how about this. I'll move in with you now and we'll save the house for after we're married."

She grinned suddenly. "That's really good."

"It will probably take it that long to be ready anyhow," he mused.

She smiled at him and walked over to him and took his hand. "So. I think we have something to celebrate again," she told him, raising her eyebrows and tugging him towards the stairs.

"That's the only reason you did this, isn't it?" Luke teased as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Nah," she muttered against his lips with a giggle. "It's not like I need an excuse to get you to _go upstairs_. And even if I did, I could've just said I had to thank you for fixing the sink."

He smirked. "Somehow I doubt in the years to come I'll stop being thanked for fixing things."

She giggled. "Then you better take advantage of it now. Come check out my bed. I think it needs fixing. I'm not sure if it's durable enough. Any ideas how we could check that?"

He ignored her and brought her lips to his again, guiding her to the stairs.

xxxxxxxxx

"I still haven't talked to her and it's tomorrow," Lorelai pouted from her stool at the counter of the diner.

"Lorelai, you need to call her," Luke said, wiping off the counter. "This is insane. She's going to court. Tomorrow. You're her mother. You have to talk to her."

"Well, it's not like I _have_ to be there," she told him, "she is over eighteen. She's on her own. The sentence is the same whether I'm there or not. I'd just be there for support, which she probably doesn't want from me anyhow."

"You're not telling me you're not even going to go?"

"Of course I'm going to go. But she won't want me there."

"Yes she will."

"No she won't. She wants to make her own choices and deal with everything all on her own."

"She wants you there. She loves you, you're her best friend, even if she's acting more like your daughter than your best friend right now."

"I know. I guess," she said, looking down at her coffee sadly. "Hey," she said suddenly, lifting her head. "When we get married does that mean I own half the diner?"

"No," he said simply, though he probably figured it did. "Not if it means you think you can add things to the menu or decorate."

"Does it mean I can go behind the counter?"

"Yes, you can come behind the counter," he conceded. "_After_ we're married," he added.

"Score!" He rolled his eyes at her and she took a sip of her coffee. "Everyone there will be against me."

"Everyone where?"

"Tomorrow. My parents will be there, no doubt. Rory, Logan, his parents, probably. They all either have something against me or I have something against them."

"You'll be fine," he told her.

"I'll look pathetic sitting there all alone knowing they're all looking at me and laughing."

"No one is going to be laughing at you." He paused. "This isn't like you to be so worried about being there on your own."

"I wish I had just one person there who was on my side. So I wouldn't feel so outnumbered. Even if it was just… one of those guys who bailed Logan out of jail."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "You want me to go with you?"

She looked up from her coffee cup. "Really?"

"If you want me to come with you, I'll come with you. If it won't bother Rory," he added.

"I'm sure it wouldn't bother Rory," she told him. "But you don't have to come," she added. "I know my parents aren't your favorite people."

"Well, they aren't yours either," he reasoned.

"True," she said with a laugh. "But you know, I don't know if…"

"What?"

"It's just that I don't exactly know what's been going on with Rory and if she's told Christopher about all this. I mean, there's a chance, a very small chance, that he might be there if she has."

Luke stopped for a moment and took in a breath. "It's fine."

"You sure?"

"As long as there's no secrets about him you've been keeping from me that you plan to reveal to me tomorrow, then yes, it's fine," he told her with a smile to show he wasn't serious.

She returned his smile. "No secrets, I promise. Haven't even heard one word from him since I yelled at him to get away from me and ran out of the vow renewal."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Well, then, okay."

"Okay. So you're coming with me?"

"If it will make you feel better, I'll be there."

"You really don't have to if it's too much of a hassle."

"I'll be there. For you _and_ Rory." She smiled at him and gathered up her things.

"Thank you," she said before leaning across the counter and giving him a kiss goodbye.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Ugh, I hate these places," Luke muttered as they walked through the courthouse.

"More than hospitals?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm looking at signs and trying to figure out where they were going.

He thought about that for a moment. "No." He sighed. "It's just that everyone here is so formal and there's lawyers all over the place."

"Hence the being in a courthouse."

He shrugged. "Whatever."

"Oh!" she gasped, stopping and looking at her hand.

"What now?"

"I forgot to take my ring off."

He grumbled. "I thought you were going to take it off last night so you wouldn't forget?"

"Well, I was, but then," she looked down shyly, "I didn't want to take it off. So I just decided to take it off this morning before I took a shower. But then I didn't want to take it off first thing, so I just kept waiting and waiting and then I guess I forgot."

He rolled his eyes. "Lorelai…" he stopped and watched her as she pulled the ring off. "Now what are you going to do with it?"

She shrugged. "Keep it for me?"

"Keep it where?"

"Don't you have a box for it or something? The box it came in!"

"Not _on_ me," he reminded her. "There _is_ a box. At home. In Stars Hollow."

"I guess I can put it in my pocket," she said, unsure. "Maybe I should just leave it on. What do I care if they know?"

"We don't want Rory to find out that way," he reminded her. "Here, come here," he said, pulling her to him and reaching behind her to unclasp her necklace-- the necklace he had given her almost a year ago-- and removed it.

"What, no jewelry allowed?" she joked.

He ignored her and took the ring from her hand and put it on the necklace chain, then put the necklace back around her neck and closed the clasp, then adjusted her jacket so the necklace was mostly hidden. "There."

She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him. "Good thinking."

"It's not completely hidden, but it's not obviously an engagement ring either. You can always move the ring to the other side of the chain so it's behind your hair. Now can we please find the place?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, looking at the signs. "This way, I think."

"This is like the blind leading the blind."

"Hey, then help out here, Buddy."

"Listen." They stopped and listened and Lorelai groaned.

"My mother." She followed the sound of her voice and arrived at a courtroom where Emily was outside talking to a lawyer.

"I swear, you better not screw this up! I don't know where on Earth Richard is, but he'll give you a rundown on what's going on before the trial starts and…"

"Emily," he interrupted. "I know everything that's going on. Rory is in good hands."

Emily sighed. "Fine. She better be!" The lawyer walked into the courtroom and Emily went to follow him when she noticed Lorelai.

"Lorelai!" she said in surprise. "Luke," she added, her voice dropping. "You're here."

Lorelai rolled her eyes slightly and shook her head. "Of course I'm here!"

"Well, don't act so offended. You haven't had contact with any of us in weeks."

"You really think I wouldn't show up to my daughter's _trial_?"

"Well I never know with you. I never know what's going on in that head of yours."

Lorelai shook her head. "Let's go," she told Luke, grabbing his hand and pulling him past her mother.

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai sat with Luke, her parents a row ahead of them. She watched them closely all through the trial, watching when they would whisper to each other and when her father seemed to be outraged at something that was being said. The trials for Rory and Logan were being held together, as they were both charged with the same crime and the attorneys had agreed this was a better idea. Logan had his father's lawyer and Rory had a lawyer chosen by her grandparents by their sides. Lorelai wondered briefly how this had gotten to this point, where Lorelai hadn't been there for Rory at all during this.

Across the way she noticed people who she assumed were Logan's parents. While she was supposed to know them, according to her parents she didn't recognize them absolutely but they did look a little familiar. She wanted to go up to Logan's father and give him a piece of her mind for what he had said to Rory. However, she knew this was not the time and that this was not even her battle to fight. She was fidgeting in her seat, perhaps from nerves or anxiety, and she felt Luke place his hand on her leg to calm her without tearing his eyes from the front of the room.

She sighed and instantly calmed down, remembering that Luke was there for her. She focused her attention on Rory who looked like she was scared to death and ready to throw up. She sat next to her lawyer who was looking through papers. Next to him was Logan, who looked surprisingly calm. _He probably has done this before_, she mused, remembering his friends who had come to bail him out of jail. His lawyer sat next to Logan, intently listening to what was going on.

And the thing she noticed most of all was that Rory hadn't looked at her once.

Lorelai wasn't sure if Rory even knew she was there at this point. She hadn't turned in her direction, and it was either because she didn't think to or because she knew Lorelai was there and didn't want to look at her for whatever reason. Even Logan had caught her eyes and nodded to her before the trial had started.

And her parents seemed to have no problem holding a gaze as they would continuously look in her direction and give her a look. Usually one that signaled disappointment or resent, she had noticed. She tried her best to not give them a look back but to ignore them and stare straight ahead.

"I'm going to let both of you off with twenty hours of community service and six months of probation," the judge finally concluded. "Though stealing something as great as a boat is not something to be taken lightly, the boat was returned safely and the owners do not wish to press charges as they know Mr. Huntzberger and his parents and this was his doing as it was his idea. Case dismissed."

Lorelai looked to Rory and Logan when the judge stated that the whole thing had been Logan's idea, wondering if Rory had been lying to her when she said it was her idea. Then she noticed Rory's head whipping towards Logan, her jaw open in shock.

People began to file out of the courtroom, and Richard and Emily immediately got up to go to Rory and Logan.

"I thought it was her idea," Luke whispered to Lorelai as they stood up.

"She told me it was," Lorelai agreed. They approached Rory and Logan as well, and Rory did a double take when she saw them.

"Mom!" she said, acting as if she was going to hug Lorelai, then thought better of it.

"Hey," Lorelai greeted her softly.

"Luke, you're here, too," Rory noted.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind, I just—"

"No, no, I'm glad you are."

"Well well, wonderful news!" Richard said.

"Hardly wonderful, Grandpa," Rory said. "Six months of probation and twenty hours of community service."

"Well that's nothing," Emily said with a wave of her hand. The Huntzbergers approached and everyone went silent.

"Richard, Emily," Shira greeted.

Emily nodded to her coolly. "Shira."

"Son, can I speak to you for a moment?" Mitchum asked Logan. Logan looked nervous and let his father take him to the side, just behind Lorelai. She tried her best not to listen, and to glance around the empty and cold courtroom as her mother tried her best to say as little as possible to Shira, but it was difficult not to hear what was going on behind her.

"Are you crazy? You just took the fall for the whole thing," Mitchum said to Logan in a harsh whisper.

"Well, Rory's lawyer didn't know what he was doing!" Logan reasoned.

"That's her problem," Mitchum said. "Her mother didn't want our lawyer. What if taking the blame had gotten you a stiffer sentence?"

"Well it didn't, okay? The Richardsons know me, but they don't know Rory. They wouldn't press charges if they think it was my idea, they might have changed their minds if they knew it was Rory's."

"Once again, that should have been her problem, Logan."

"Well, I should have stopped her when she wanted to take the boat. Besides, nothing came of it, so what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is you're ruining your reputation!" he said, raising his voice. "And you're dragging our name through the mud in the process."

Lorelai felt her heart fall a little for Logan. She knew that argument better than any other. She tried to ignore the conversation and watched Rory fiddle with the bracelet on her arm as Emily still tried to speak as few words as possible to Shira.

"Just lighten up!" Logan said. "This whole thing was punishment enough for Rory, she doesn't do this kind of thing. Okay? I made a choice, now deal with it."

"You've been making a lot of choices lately, Logan," he said, "and I have to say, I don't agree with many of them. You better get your act together and start taking life seriously by making _good_ choices or I'm not going to be supporting you at school anymore."

Logan made a face. "Well it was all your fault she wanted to steal the boat anyway. You treated her horribly."

"I told her the truth."

"Whatever," Logan said, turning to leave the courtroom.

Mitchum watched him go and then turned to his wife. "We better go," he told Shira.

"Where's Logan?" she asked. "I need a smoke anyhow."

"Logan left already, probably making some bad choices out in the hallway."

Emily stared at them coolly. "See you later," Emily told them, with a voice Lorelai had thought was reserved only for her.

"Goodbye Emily. Goodbye Richard," Shira added, letting Mitchum lead her out of the courtroom.

"I can't believe those two," Emily said with a roll of her eyes. "So fake. They're all about appearances and names, not thinking Rory is good enough for Logan for heaven's sake."

Lorelai turned and looked at Emily, raising her eyebrows. Emily looked at her for a moment before dismissing the look.

"Yeah, sure do hate it when people don't think other people are good enough just because of their names," Lorelai snapped bluntly. She turned to Rory then, leaving Emily to think about that. "Rory, kid, you okay?"

Rory looked up at her mother and nodded. "Yeah, it was all just a little—" she stopped talking for a moment, and Lorelai followed her gaze to her necklace, "overwhelming," Rory finished.

Lorelai nodded in understanding, unsure of what to do next. She wanted to hug Rory, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to. "Well, everything worked out," she assured her. "You'll do the community service and be good for six months and you'll be clear. Then you'll just have a good story to tell and plenty of opportunities to be mocked."

Rory nodded, then stepped forward and gave her mother a hug. Lorelai immediately pulled Rory closer and gave her a kiss on the head.

"Well, we better get home, Rory," Emily interrupted. Rory pulled away from Lorelai slowly.

"Oh. Yeah," Rory agreed reluctantly. "Home."

"Yes, I have a phone call from China coming in this afternoon," Richard added.

Rory looked to her mother, then nodded. "Yeah. Let's go. Home," she said softly.

Lorelai watched sadly, wishing that she could just take Rory home to her real home. But just because this trial was over and the yacht issue resolved didn't mean that the dropping out of Yale issue was resolved, and that was what started the whole spereation.

"Goodbye Lorelai," Richard said. "Luke," he added with a nod.

Rory turned to Luke and gave him a hug. "Bye Luke," she said softly. "Thanks for being here," she added. "Even if it was just for Mom…"

"It was for both of you," he assured her. Rory smiled at him and then looked to her mother.

"Bye Mom," she added, moving towards her than thinking better of it. Finally she quickly placed a kiss on her cheek and then followed her grandparents out of the courtroom.

"Bye," Lorelai said absently. Rory watched her mother as she walked out the door, turning to glance back at her every few steps.

When they were gone, Lorelai turned to Luke. "I hate this."

He nodded in sympathy. "I know."

"I should have been there for her more through this. This was huge, potentially traumatizing, and I abandoned her. I let the Yale thing get in the way of this. I'm a horrible mother!"

"She's fine," he said, rubbing her back soothingly. "Besides, there wasn't much you could have done for her other than tell her everything was going to work out when you didn't know if it really would."

She nodded. "I guess. I still hate this."

"I know," he agreed softly. He reached around he neck and unclasped her necklace again. "Here, maybe this will cheer you up." He took the ring off the necklace and slid it back on her hand before putting the necklace back around her neck.

"Hmm, yeah," she said, holding out her hand to look at. "I think that does cheer me up."

"You have to tell Rory about this soon," he added gently.

"I know," she agreed. "And I want to tell her. But I don't want to tell her when things are like this."

"Well what if she finds out some other way?"

"How?"

"I don't know, considering her best friend works for me and knows we're engaged, it's possible."

"Lane," Lorelai realized. "Ugh, you're right. We could tell her not to say anything!"

"That's not really fair to Lane," Luke reasoned. "We can't ask her to do that."

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess not."

"You just need to work things out with Rory. All you have to do is talk to her."

"You make it sound so easy."

"It's you and Rory. It _will_ be easy."

"A year ago, maybe. Not now. Things have become so different."

"It's still you and Rory. If you couldn't tell from the way she was acting in here today, she misses you as much as you miss her."

Lorelai sighed, looking down at her hands. "But what about Yale? That's what started this whole thing. I told her she couldn't come live with me if she was dropping out of Yale. So unless that changes…"

"You can at least still talk to her. It doesn't mean that you have to cut all contact just because she's doing something you disapprove of and she's living somewhere else for the summer. Talking to her doesn't mean you suddenly approve."

"I guess."

"Call her."

"I don't know."

"I'll tell you what, you call her and we can negotiate the going behind the counter thing so that you could maybe do it _before_ we're married."

She grinned at him and laughed, wiping at her eyes where tears were threatening to fall. "Thank you," she said, throwing her arms around him. "I really needed to laugh right now." A moment later she saw Rory pass by the door and stop to look at them when she noticed them still inside. She looked at Rory for a moment, waiting to see what she was going to do.

"The bathroom is a little further up, Rory," Emily's voice echoed through the halls.

Rory stopped looking at Luke and Lorelai and turned to look down the hall at Emily. "Right. Thanks Grandma," Rory said, forcing herself to move past the doorway.

"Not going to be as easy as it seems," Lorelai whispered to Luke.

xxxxxxxxxx

Hmm, I hope that whole court thing came out okay, I really didn't know how to write the actual court and sentencing, but I wanted the character interaction. Hope it wasn't too bad!

Part 4 soon!


	4. Part 4

Part 4

I think that this chapter has a whole lot of nothing in it, haha. It doesn't really move too much or resolve anything, but I promise that the story will soon! I actually split this into two parts and all the action and real things are in part 5 now.

xxxxxxxxxx

"They're getting married!" Rory exclaimed to Logan over the phone.

"Who is?" he asked.

"My mother. And Luke. They're getting married."

"Oh, hey, that's great," Logan said.

"No it's not! I mean, it is. It's great for them. But it's not great because they didn't tell me."

"What do you mean they didn't tell you?"

"I saw the ring at the trial," she told him. "My mom hasn't told me yet."

"Ouch," Logan said with a frown.

"I know. It's not just that she's getting married, she's getting married to _Luke_," she stated.

"Now Luke is the second one who burst in on us at the vow renewal?" Logan confirmed.

"Yes," Rory agreed. "He's also the one who was at the trial with my mom."

"Oh, right." He thought about what Rory was telling him for a few moments. "She'll tell you soon. It's just because of the way things are between you and her right now."

"But you don't understand. This is my _mother_. We're not just mother and daughter, we're best friends." Rory sighed sadly. "I would normally be the first one she would tell the news to, like, five seconds after it happened. And now she hasn't even told me and who knows how long she's been engaged?"

"Calm down."

"I just, I can't believe it. And not only that she didn't tell me right away, but because it's _Luke_."

"I gather from the way you speak of him that the fact that she's marrying Luke is big."

"Yes, yes, it's big! It's huge. I mean, she and Luke have been friends forever, Luke's always been there for her… and for me, too. And they are so happy together and when they broke up she was _so_ devastated and I'm just so glad they've made it."

"I'm sorry," Logan told her.

She sighed. "It's okay. I mean, I understand why she didn't run to me to tell me, and it's probably mostly my fault. But it still hurts. And I'm not placing the cause of the hurt on her, it's just that I realize we're drifting and how serious this little rift is. That hurts."

"Everything will work out, Ace."

"I hope so," she said. "I miss her."

"I know you do," Logan said. "But things will work out. Just give it time."

Rory sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"Hey Rory?" he asked.

She perked up noticing he used her name. "Hmm?"

"Are you sure this dropping out of Yale thing was a good idea?"

Rory sighed. "Logan…"

"It's just that I know my father and I know he can be a jerk."

"That doesn't mean that he wasn't right."

"Well, I don't think he was right," Logan told her. "You know that, right?"

Rory looked down at the floor. "Well, no… not really."

"Well I don't. I think he's wrong. Completely. You can do this."

"I don't know," Rory said with a sigh. "I want to do it, I _wish_ I could do it, I want to go back to… I want to do it."

"Want to go back to where?"

"Nothing, I just meant that I _wish_ I could do it, but I can't."

"Okay, but still, leaving Yale?"

"You did it. You left for a year, so why is it right for you and wrong for me?"

"Because I'm not focused like you are. I don't have a dream like you do."

"I don't have a dream anymore, either," Rory said. "I have to go." She hung up and sighed, looking at the books on her bookshelf before pulling one off and taking it to her bed to read.

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai stood in front of the door of the pool house.

She had been there for a few minutes now. Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, to be exact. She glanced at her watch again and sighed. She raised her hand to knock on the door, only because she was afraid of being discovered by one of her parents if she stood around outside for any longer.

The door swung open and Rory appeared, her face sporting a surprised expression.

"Mom…" she stated, holding on to the door.

"Hey," Lorelai replied quietly. "How are you?"

"Okay," Rory said softly. "Good."

"Good, that's good. Good," Lorelai replied nervously.

"You want to come in?" Rory asked, stepping aside in case Lorelai accepted the offer.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Lorelai said, stepping inside and looking around and Rory's things scattered around the pool house. "I, uh, I came to talk to you," she finally explained. "I have to tell you something."

"You and Luke are engaged," Rory stated softly, looking down at the carpet.

Lorelai looked at her in surprise. "You know?"

Rory nodded a bit sadly. "I saw the ring," she said, looking up to look right at Lorelai's left hand, "at the trial. I saw you had it around your neck and I thought that was suspicious. Then later I was looking for the bathroom and I saw you hugging Luke and your hand, well, the ring was on it by then."

"Oh," Lorelai realized, looking away from Rory. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you myself, I didn't mean for you to find out that way."

Rory shrugged. "It's okay. Things are weird right now, so what could you do?"

Lorelai nodded. "Right. Sure."

"Can I see it?" Rory asked timidly.

"What?"

She laughed. "The ring."

"Oh!" Lorelai realized, and held out her hand for Rory to take so she could examine the ring up close.

"Oh, Mom, it's beautiful," Rory said with a sigh, suddenly forgetting all the tension and the weirdness of the situation with her mother.

"It was his mother's."

"Aww, wow," Rory said, impressed. She examined the ring for a moment longer before letting go of her mother's hand to look up at her. "How'd he do it?"

"Do what?"

"Propose!" Under normal circumstances Rory would crack a joke about Lorelai being slow and not getting things, but she didn't think that was a good idea right now.

"He didn't," Lorelai said, smiling and letting her guard down a little as well.

Rory frowned. "But you're engaged."

"I know. I did it."

Rory's eyes widened. "_You?_ Proposed?"

Lorelai nodded. "Yep."

"Wow," she took that in for a moment. "Did you _plan_ the proposal?"

"It kind of just happened," Lorelai explained.

"How on Earth does that just happen?"

"Well, I was kind of upset about…" suddenly she remembered the strained relationship between her and Rory, "something… and he was being amazing. I just looked at him and realized that he's there. He's always there. He's always the last one there. When everyone else deserts me, he's always still there. And that he'd do anything for me. And for you. And I just knew it was time for this because I love him so unbelievably much."

Rory grinned, but the reality of their situation was brought back to her as well. "Congratulations Mom! I'm so happy for you guys." She sighed and spoke softly. "I just wish I had been there to hear about it right after."

Lorelai nodded, remembering why exactly Rory hadn't been there. "Well, I should go," she said softly.

"Okay."

"Oh," Lorelai cringed. "Luke's moving in."

"I assumed."

"Just until we're married."

"Just until?" Rory wrinkled her face in confusion.

"Because then we're moving."

Rory's face turned to shock and she raised her eyebrows. "You're… moving? Both of you together?" Lorelai nodded. "To where?"

"You know the Twickham House?"

"Wow. You're _moving_ there?"

"Luke's always wanted to live in that house if he had a family. And it's a beautiful house, and it's a lot bigger than our… my… house, so you know, if I ever start craving apples again…"

Rory took all this in and simply nodded dully. "Oh."

Lorelai watched her reaction. "Are you okay with all this? Because if you're not…"

Rory waved her off. "Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, it's great. And, you know, it's not like I can expect you not to move when I'm moving all over the place. Besides, it's good for you and Luke. I was just taken by surprise."

"Right. Good." They both stood in silence for a moment, the tension completely back. "Well, I really should go," Lorelai said. Rory nodded.

"Okay. See you… or… well, see you later."

"Later," Lorelai agreed, going to the door and letting herself out. She looked at the door that closed behind her and sighed. At least Rory had seemed happy and okay with everything.

She was barely five feet from the door when her mother cornered her.

"Lorelai!"

She cringed. _Damn_. "Mom."

"What are you doing here? I saw your car."

"I came to talk to Rory."

"Rory!"

"Yeah. You know. She's my daughter, so…"

"And were you going to come into the house to talk to your father and me?"

She paused as if she was thinking this over. "No."

"Lorelai, you can't just come over here and not--" Emily stopped abruptly when she noticed the ring on Lorelai's hand. "What on Earth is on your finger?"

"Oh. This?" Lorelai waved her hand at her mother. "Hmm. How'd that get there?"

Emily rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Lorelai, really. Are you engaged?"

"Looks that way."

"And you didn't tell us? Just like last time!"

"Well, forgive me, Mom, but why would I have told you under the current circumstances? I get engaged and come running to my parents who have just stabbed me in the back and been nothing but disrespectful to my fiancée to tell them the news? Weird, I didn't think of that idea."

"I'm your mother. You should tell me things like this."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Right. Sorry. I forgot."

"Honestly, Lorelai."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd really care, since I know this is what you've been trying to avoid for months now. So I didn't think to tell you that I asked Luke to marry me, forgive me."

"_You_ asked Luke?" Emily asked, her mouth dropping open.

"Yes."

"Lorelai, that's highly inappropriate."

"I know," Lorelai replied with a roll of her eyes, her voice dropping with sarcasm.

"You're a Gilmore, Lorelai. Do you remember that? This is not how Gilmore women conduct themselves, going around asking men to marry them."

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore, Mom. I won't be a Gilmore for much longer. I won't have an important high-class name I can't live up to and embarrass you by possessing and acting the way I act. Bye Mom." She turned on her heels and left Emily standing there, her mouth open in shock.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Ta da, the news is officially all over Hartford by now," Lorelai announced, walking into the almost empty diner. "What the hell is up with this?" she added, gesturing to no one being around.

Luke shrugged. "Well. Kirk came in here a while ago and made a scene involving being half naked and burning himself, so I think people decided to stay away for a while." He wiped off the counter. "How'd it go?"

"Well, I told Rory." She took a seat on one of the stools.

"Which was the plan."

"And she was really excited at first and for a few minutes there we totally forgot we have a huge brick wall between us. By the way, she already knew. She saw the ring at the trial."

"Around your neck?" Lorelai nodded.

"Yeah, around my neck and then later she passed by when I had it on my finger and she noticed it."

"Was she upset you didn't tell her?" He placed a coffee cup in front of her and filled it.

"No, she understood, I think," Lorelai answered. "Anyway, we talked about it and everything was good for a few minutes, then suddenly the wall was back. Then I told her about the moving and that totally threw her off, and then things were weird, so I left." She lifted the coffee cup to her lips and took a sip.

"Is she not okay with the moving?"

"No, she is. I think. She just wasn't expecting that, and things are so weird with us she didn't know how to react, and well, the wall was back and just as high as before by then."

"I'm sorry," he said, wincing a little.

"Oh, but then the best part," she said, "my mother found me on my way out."

"Uh oh."

"And she started off by attempting to lecture me on not going inside to visit her and Dad. Then she saw the ring and got mad I hadn't told her. Then she told me it was inappropriate to propose to you and that ending with me leaving her standing there in shock."

He raised his eyebrows. "So, pretty eventful visit."

"Definitely eventful. But anyhow, everyone knows now, so we're good."

"Well, good, I guess." He turned to replace the coffeepot behind them.

"When do you want to get married?" she asked suddenly. He turned to her and frowned. "That was my segue in case you missed it."

"Uhh, well…"

"Because I have an idea."

"What is it?" he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"You know how a lot of people get married on anniversaries or holidays like Valentine's Day?"

"We are _not_ getting married on Valentine's Day."

"No, I know," she said, rolling her eyes. "I figured that would be out. But I thought, what if we get married on the anniversary of our break up?"

He frowned. "Aren't you supposed to get married on _good_ holidays and anniversaries?"

"Well, there's no rule."

"Why would you want to get married on that day?"

"I don't know, just to turn it in to something good instead of a bad memory. And, you know, it's kind of like making a statement. Telling that day that it's weak and we've beat it. That day was so, so horrible for me," she recalled, "and so I just thought it would be kind of cool to look back on it a year later and see that even though it was horrible, we made it."

He appeared to be considering this for a moment, staring past her at the door as he thought about it.

"Okay," he finally decided. "Let's do it then."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You're right. We should make it into something good. And it's kind of symbolic to get married on the day you broke up."

"I really didn't think you'd agree," she noted. "Oh my God!"

"What?"

"We have a wedding date. We have a future anniversary."

"Yeah, we do."

"See now, if you _had_ wanted to get married on Valentine's Day, that would've been one less occasion to have to remember. Less gifts, one date to remember. Too bad we already have a date."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't you have an inn you should be running?"

"Oh yeah," she said, getting up. "That darn thing." She smiled at him before leaning across the counter to kiss him. "Tonight we can debate exactly which day we broke up on," she added and was out the door.

She returned to the diner later that night, once she got off work. The normal thing to do would be to go home, but she suddenly hated going home and being alone. Especially when she knew that Luke was going to be living with her soon, she hated being alone even more.

She looked around the diner when she got there and looked to Caesar.

"Hey Caesar." He nodded at her and flashed her a smile.

"Luke's upstairs," he added. She smiled.

"Thanks!" She headed behind the curtain and crept up the steps. She opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside—knocking was overrated—and was about to let it close behind her when she noticed Luke sitting on the armchair, his arm draped over his face. She smiled to herself and let go of the door, keeping it from making any noise, put her purse down next to the door and slipped off her shoes so she wouldn't make any noise and quietly walked over to Luke. Apparently he still didn't know she had come in, so she suddenly plopped herself down on his lap.

His eyes opened immediately and he removed his arm from across his face. He looked at her for a moment with a half glare, half smirk, trying to figure out if he was mad at her for scaring him or happy to see her.

"Pay back's only fair," she told him with a laugh. "You've snuck up on me a lot recently."

He rolled his eyes and shifted slightly, the best he could do with her on top of him. "Yeah, okay, fine."

"Besides, you can't tell me you don't like suddenly opening your eyes to find your amazing, wonderful, gorgeous fiancé."

"I've opened my eyes to worse things," he agreed. She leaned down to give him a kiss. "What are you doing here?" he added.

"What, now I need a reason to come see you?"

"No, I was just… never mind."

She laughed. "I didn't want to go home and be by myself. It's suddenly depressing being at home alone, knowing you're over here and soon you won't be, you'll be with me, but you aren't yet."

He nodded as if he had followed her thoughts. "Right."

She looked around the apartment and noticed he had started packing things. "What are you going to do with the apartment after we move?" she asked.

"What?"

"Well, I'm assuming you're _really_ going to move in with me, unlike with Nicole…" she stopped suddenly, realizing she was going down an inappropriate path. "Sorry."

"It's okay."

"No it's not, I'm sorry. That was wrong on about twenty different levels."

"Forget it," he told her.

"Number one, bringing up Nicole. Number two, comparing our relationship to yours with Nicole. And number three, passing judgment on that whole situation again. And those are just the three that occurred to me already. Go ahead, use the obvious comeback."

"What?" he asked her with a frown.

"The obvious comeback, go ahead, say it."

"I would if I knew what it was," he told her with a frown.

"You say, 'Well I'm assuming you're _really_ going to marry me, unlike with Max.'" He shook his head at her and she panicked again. "Oh my God, that wasn't a good thing to say either. Number one, bringing up Max. Number two, comparing—"

"Lorelai," he cut her off, "stop."

"But…"

"Stop. Relax."

She took a breath. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he told her, this time with even more sincerity. "I'll turn it into an office," he added.

"The apartment?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Like it was supposed to be."

"It's going to be a big office," she added. "After the enlarging you did for Jess."

"Well, we can also use it for whatever. Storage or for someone who needs a place to stay or for Rory if she ever needs somewhere quiet to work or, well, we'll figure it out."

"_Or_ for a place to sneak away to during the lunch rush when I suddenly decide to pay you a visit at the diner while wearing my black dress?" she asked with a devilish glint in her eye.

"Uh, yeah, sure, we could try that out too."

She giggled and leaned down to kiss him again. "Fun."

"Hungry?" he asked her.

She nodded. "When am I not?"

"Get up," he said, moving to stand up. "I'll see what we have to eat."

"Hey, when we're married are you going to cook our meals?" she asked, as she brushed her skirt so it didn't get wrinkled and followed him to the kitchen.

"In the interest of being able to eat them, yes."

"Good. Glad we have that settled."

He frowned at her. "Was there ever any negotiating?" he questioned, shifting things around in the refrigerator.

"I don't know. I just thought maybe after we got married you'd suddenly expect me to transform into Donna Reed."

He pulled his head out of the refrigerator and looked at her with a frown. "Well I don't," he said. "Don't change at all," he added.

"Except my name."

He closed the refrigerator and looked at her. "You want to change your name?"

"You sound surprised."

He shrugged. "I just never thought that was you."

"Well, maybe it is," she said with a smile.

"Rory has your name, though," he reminded her.

"Oh yeah," she frowned a little. "Well, she's grown. She's independent. I think she can deal with having a different name than me. Besides, that's how it would have been if she had had her father's name all these years."

Luke shrugged. "True."

"Besides, I already promised my mom that I wouldn't embarrass her by obtaining the Gilmore name for much longer," she said with a roll of her eyes. "It will actually be a relief to get rid of the name that causes me all that grief."

He shrugged again. "You could always hyphenate."

"I could pull a Courteney Cox Arquette!" she said.

He stared at her for a moment. "What?"

"Courteney Cox. When she got married, she added on the Arquette with the intention of always dropping the Cox later and just becoming Courteney Arquette. Though I don't think it worked since she has a kid that's like, what, one now, and still going by all three names. But I could _really_ eventually drop the Gilmore one day. After everyone at work gets used to the Danes being at the end of Lorelai and maybe Rory gets married and changes her own name."

He shook his head at all this information. "Yeah, sure, that would work too," he agreed.

"Or maybe not. I'd kind of just like to change it completely at the beginning. I hate all that confusion about parents having different last names than their kids. When Rory was in school you'd get a message or note from some parent with a totally different last name than their kid, or even a hyphenated one and you'd wonder 'Who the hell are you?" because even when the names are hyphenated it doesn't click right away."

"I'm beginning to wish that I hadn't questioned your decision to change your name."

"So grumpy," she teased, sticking out her tongue. "What happened to the food?"

"I forgot, I don't have much of anything. The delivery was late this morning because some driver quit and so people were ordering things I was out of, so I came up here and used my stuff down at the diner."

"Oh," she frowned. "Well, good thing we're above a diner then, no need to panic!" she joked. "I'll go down and get us something to eat."

"Fine. But don't pay anyone, please."

"Fiiine," she said, making a face, "but only because you're eating the food, too."

"I really hope you see that when we get married there will be no point to paying me. You'll give me money and it will end up right back in our bank account."

"So then, no loss!" she teased. "Heeey, we're going to need new checks!"

He groaned. "I don't like where this is going."

"We'll have to get checks with both of our names on them and then we can pick a design for the checks—"

"I _knew_ I didn't like where this was going."

"… and they can have cute little things on them," she was openly teasing him now.

"Lorelai," he groaned.

"I mean, you can go into Doose's and write Taylor a check with cute little kittens on it. He'll love it."

"What do I have to do to get you to stop talking?"

"Ooh, I think you know how to get me to stop talking," she told him with a mischievous glint in her eye and a subtle wink.

"Food, now, or I may just have to."

She grinned at him. "Only because I'm hungry will I go with that. But later you can shut me up all you want." She teased before slipping out of the apartment and going down to the diner to get their food.

Later that night Lorelai had talked him into watching TV after they had dinner, and she was happily engrossed in a show that Luke could care less about as she leaned against him paying close attention to the fact that he was stroking her hair absentmindedly.

"Can we go in our house?" she asked him finally during a commercial in order to keep her focus as he was stroking her hair.

"Go in it?" he asked, mostly taken aback by the question coming from nowhere.

"No? Oh, I thought it was one of those houses that people go in."

He ignored her sarcasm. "You've been in it before."

"Yes, but that was before it was _our_ house. And there was always a man who claimed he was dying or weird I Love Jesus mannequins around."

He shrugged. "Alright, fine, we can go in it."

"Man, I'd love to tell my mother that we bought a house that I've never even seriously looked at. She would flip. Oh, I should call and tell her, it's too good to pass up."

He laughed a little. "Let's not. I think we have enough conflict in that department already."

She smiled and let her head rest on his chest again, thinking of how much she loved the fact that he had just said 'let's' and 'we.' Man, she was totally gone. Who would've thought independent Lorelai Gilmore would ever be so content not having to be so independent anymore?

"Luke?" she said softly, playing with his hand.

"Hmm?"

"I love you," she said contentedly, letting her eyes close as she listened to the TV.

"I love you too," he whispered into her head, planting a kiss on top of it. "Always."

She smiled and kept her eyes closed. "The town would kill to know that you're really so sweet."

"And we're going to keep it that way," he reminded her.

She laughed softly. "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry Butch."

"Lorelai," he warned at the use of his despised nickname. She just giggled in response.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Here we are," he announced when they arrived at their house the next day.

"Wow, this is exciting," Lorelai stated. "Let's go," she said, tugging on his hand and pulling him up the steps.

They got to the doorway and Lorelai went to walk in when Luke stopped her. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, and the next thing she knew she was in his arms. She gasped as he lifted her, then turned to look at him with a grin.

"Why Luke Danes, look at you all old-fashioned."

"I'll put you down if you don't stop right there," he threatened.

"No, no," she giggled. "Carry me over the threshold," she prompted him. He carried her inside, and she laughed as he went to set her down. She placed a kiss on his lips quickly. "That was totally something from a romantic comedy."

"Keep pushing your luck and you're walking over it on our wedding day."

She gasped. "You wouldn't let me."

"Anyway," he said, desperate to change the topic. "Here we are. Living room."

"It's nice," she noted. "It's big." She looked around and took everything in, then followed Luke into the next room.

"Dining room," he stated. "I think."

"Yeah, I think so," she agreed. "And in here we must have the kitchen," she added, walking into the next room which was indeed the kitchen. "Where _you_ will be cooking our meals?" she confirmed again.

"Yes," he agreed. "And you will be staying far away from unless it's to make coffee or _eat_ the meals."

"The only point to the kitchen," she agreed. "Wow, look at the windows, they're huge. I love them." She looked out of one of the windows. "Oh man, this is a backyard people would kill for."

"It is big," he agreed.

"Has Kirk talked to you about mowing that yard? Because I know that's a job he'll be after."

"He has, and I've told him no. Repeatedly."

"And he's still asking."

"Of course."

She giggled. "Man, this _is_ one nice kitchen. It almost makes me want to learn to cook just so I can spend more time in here."

"Family room is this way," he added, leading her out of the kitchen and back the way they came. After checking out the family room, they went upstairs. "There's four bedrooms," he told her. "There's these two," he pointed to two on one side of the hallway, "and a bathroom, and then one over here, and then the master bedroom." He nodded towards a door and she stepped in.

"Oh my God, this is huge."

"It is spacious."

"Luke, this is like the size of your whole apartment before you enlarged. This is huge."

"Too big?" he asked with a concerned look on her face.

"There is no such thing as too big when it comes to bedrooms." She pulled open a door to find a closet. "Holy cow."

"Closets are a good size, too," he added with a smirk.

"I'll say! I might actually fit all my shoes in here even with all your stuff."

"Good luck," he teased.

She abandoned the closet and went to another door. "Our own bathroom," she stated, letting a hand fall over her heart. "This is too good to be true. We'll have our own bathroom. Oh man. We can do dirty things in there."

His mouth dropped open a little. "Lorelai!"

She giggled and stepped closer to him. "Well, we can. Showers in the mornings, for starters."

"Whatever, maybe," he stammered and she smiled at him. "So?" he asked. "What do you think of everything?"

She grinned and looked around the bedroom. "I love everything. Everything is amazing. This house is just amazing."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Really. This is the best thing you ever kept from me," she teased.

"Well, good."

She looked around again and she seemed to be contemplating something. "Wow."

"What?" he asked carefully, trying to read the expressions on her face.

"I'm just so… content. Everything is coming together so nicely and there are so many big changes and so much to be scared of, but I'm not. I'm happy and content. The thought of being married to you and us living here and one day making new people to live here," she said with a little laugh. "Do you know how happy we're going to be?" she added through tears.

He smiled at her softly and pulled her close, kissing her on the cheek. "Yeah. I have an idea."

"Why on Earth did you wait so long for me?" she asked softly.

"What?"

"All those years. There was Rachel and Nicole and… why was I so special? What did I do to deserve you and get to end up with you even though we wasted all that time?"

He looked at her for a moment, as if thinking about his answer. "You're… Lorelai," he explained, and for some reason this answer made her stomach flip and caused tears to silently fall down her cheeks.

"I love you so much," she said, putting her arms around his neck and holding him close. "I can't believe I got so lucky."

"I can't believe it sometimes either," he said quietly.

"What?"

"That after all those years, after watching you go through all those relationships and all those guys who tried to win you back and wanted to marry you, that I was the one that got to end up with you. There was a point when I just thought it would never happen."

"Well it did," she whispered into his shoulder. "It is."

He smiled and rubbed her back soothingly until she pulled away. She wiped at her eyes and laughed a little. "Okay, sentimental overwhelmed time over. Where do we put the bed?"

"Ready to start arguing about that already?" he teased. They walked out into the hallway and he nodded towards a room. "Oh, check that one out. Tons of bookshelves. Perfect for…"

"Rory," she finished for him, giving him a smile to assure he was okay. "Yeah, that's perfect. She can have a room here until she is really on her own, then we can just turn it into a guest room or something. Well, assuming we're using the other two rooms."

"Or we can let it be Rory's room forever."

"We don't have to do that."

"Why not? You know, when our kids grow up and go to college we'll leave their rooms the same way. Most people do. Unless they decide to randomly turn them into gyms or sewing rooms."

She laughed. "Yeah, but still, what if we need a guest room?"

"For who? Rory. She's the person who would be staying here the most."

"Well," she chuckled, "yeah."

"And if we ever have some other guest, they can stay in Rory's room. It can be like those hotels that have a theme in every room. They can stay in The Rory Room."

She giggled. "You are absolutely the greatest guy ever."

He shrugged. "Well, there's probably a few greater than me," he reminded her.

"I seriously doubt it," she told him, still looking around and touching everything. "Like I once told Liz. You're one of the good ones, if not _the_ good one."

"You told Liz that?" he asked with an embarrassed cringe.

She chuckled. "Yeah."

"When?"

"First time I met her," she stated absentmindedly.

"Oh," he realized. "But that was before we were…"

She looked at him and nodded. "Yeah. It was." She smiled at him and continued looking around the house.

She checked out each of the bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs. She stood in the middle of the hall with her hands on her hips as Luke leaned against the wall, waiting for her.

"There is not one thing I don't like," she stated.

"And that's bad?" Luke asked.

"Just saying. Leave it to you to go behind my back and buy a house that I love."

He smiled. "Sorry." She walked over to him and gave him a lingering kiss.

"Heeey," she said with that voice that always made him know something was coming.

"What?" he asked with caution, narrowing his eyes at her.

"We should break in our bedroom," she told him in a whisper, giving him a knowing look.

"We should…" he started out confused. Realization hit him a moment later. "Oh."

She tugged on his arms to pull him away from the wall. "It's calling our names. Or, better yet, it wants to hear _us_ call each other's names."

Luke blushed. "Lorelai," he groaned.

"Come on, it will be fun," she assured him, leaning in to kiss him again. "Promise," she added in a whisper.

"The floor is hard and uncomfortable," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but I think the benefits of being on the floor in the first place will cancel out the fact that the floor is uncomfortable," she told him, raising her eyebrows.

"I don't think so," he told her as she ignored him and pulled him into their bedroom.

"I'm pretty sure you'll get to like the floor_ real_ fast," she told him, kicking their bedroom door closed behind them.

xxxxxxxxx

When she got home that night she had eleven messages on her answering machine.

She grumbled and realized that this was why she and Luke should be living together, like, now. She often went periods of time without coming home. She hadn't checked her answering machine all day the day before. She had figured if anyone really needed her, they would call her cell phone.

She pressed play on the answering machine and her mother's voice rang out. "Lorelai, it's your mother. I want to talk to you about your engagem-"

She pressed skip.

"Lorelai, it's your mother again. Would you please call me back? You left very rudely the other day and--"

She pressed skip again. She had almost forgotten that she hadn't dealt with the aftermath of her mother finding out about the engagement and the latest fight she had had with her.

She also suspected that her mother didn't _really_ know what to say to her or want to talk to her. If she had, she would have called her cell phone at some point instead of the home phone. Everyone knew they had a better shot of finding Lorelai by calling her cell phone, especially in the past year after she started spending half her nights with Luke. Even her mother knew this. Her mother could be all high and mighty and disappointed while leaving messages. She could try and make Lorelai feel bad without giving Lorelai the chance to defend herself, and Lorelai suspected that her mother actually liked leaving messages because she could say whatever she wanted without being interrupted. Plus, it would make it look like she was trying to contact Lorelai and Lorelai was blowing her off.

She skipped through the messages until she got to message ten. Her father.

"Lorelai, it's your father. Your mother tells me you have some news to tell us, and that you won't call her back—"

She pressed skip again. This time she wasn't talking to _either_ of her parents. In fact, she thought she was even more angry with her father for the whole Rory situation. She had gotten the impression that her mother was rather unsure about the whole thing and most of it had been her father's idea.

Message eleven. "Hey, it's me," Luke's voice came across the answering machine. She smiled and knew she could listen to one of the messages after all. "I just figured you'd have a bunch of messages from your parents by the time you got home and so I just thought I'd call and leave you a not so angry message. Which is what this was supposed to be. Maybe it's not. Anyway, I better go now. I'll see you later at the diner, I'm sure. I have the coffee after all."

She smiled at the answering machine for a moment even after his message was over.

Yes, she definitely loved Luke beyond comprehension.

"Yeah, you have the coffee," she said with a smile, and headed up the stairs to go get changed for work.

The phone rang again while she was upstairs, but she didn't think to go answer it, figuring it would be one of her parents. After all, they call ten out of eleven times; the odds were in their favor.

When she got downstairs the light was flashing, so she hit play, fully prepared to hit skip any second.

"Hi Mom, it's me," Rory's voice rang out. "I just wanted to call you to, well, I don't know. I guess I just wanted to say hi or talk or something. Make sure everything is good. I don't know. You don't have to call me back or anything, don't worry. I just… I should go. Bye."

_Damn_, Lorelai thought. Rory had called her and if she had answered the phone, maybe they would have talked. This distance was getting to her and she wished she could end it now.

At least she had Luke.

To be continued…


	5. Part 5

Part 5

Okay, I also had to split this one into two (it got too long) so things start to get resolved here, and it continues into part 6. I think part 6 might be the last, or maybe not, we'll see. But the main issues of the show's cliffhanger should all be resolved by part 6.

Lane is in my story, pretend she and her band haven't gone on tour yet. ;)

xxxxxxxxx

Lorelai sat on the floor of Luke's apartment, gathering up books from his bookshelf and placing them in a box. She tossed a good amount of them into a box that she had found that had already had books in it and carried it over to the kitchen table.

"So what's the deal with all the books?" she asked him, pulling some of them out of the box and looking at them.

He shrugged. "A lot of them were my dad's," he explained. "I don't even know what half of them are."

"What do you want to do with them?" she asked. "I mean, I assume you want to keep them, but do you want to move them now or later?"

"We can move those later," he stated. "I don't use them much. If ever."

She nodded. "Hey, look, here's that golf book I think you were looking for when you went golfing with my dad." She laughed. "I still can't believe you did that."

"Yeah, well," he grumbled. "Lot of good it did me."

She tilted her head and looked at him, feeling sorry for him, wishing she could force her parents to accept Luke. Speaking of which, she should probably call them back one of these days.

"Forget about them," she told him gently, "they're not worth it."

He went back to looking through the drawer he was looking through and she continued to look through the books. It dawned on her that she had no idea why she was looking through the books because she wasn't sorting them or anything. So she decided to make herself useful she would wipe them off and check out their condition.

When she got to the bottom of the box, she pulled out a book and frowned.

"This looks familiar," she stated.

"What is it?" he asked, passing by her on the way back to the bedroom area.

"Isn't this Jess's book?" she asked, holding it out to him. "The one I was making fun of and we got into a little thing about. At Liz's wedding," she added.

"I remember," he said quickly.

"Why do you have it?" she asked innocently as she brushed the dust off. "Jess leave it here?"

"Yeah. He, uh, gave it to me."

She frowned. "Why would he give you this book?"

"I guess I should clarify. He gave it _back_ to me."

"_Back_ to you?" she asked. "But it wasn't--" she froze. "Oh my God. Oh… it was _yours_," she realized. "No wonder you got so defensive about it. Oh my God, I'm an idiot."

He laughed a little. "Well it is perfect mocking material."

"Which is why I couldn't get why you weren't mocking it. If that had really been Jess's, _man_, you would have been all over him!"

He chuckled. "I know."

She looked up at him, her eyes asking him to explain the story more, but she didn't dare ask him seeing as how he didn't exactly seem to enjoy this conversation.

"I gave it to Jess when I was done with it, that's why you saw him with it. He told me that he had told Rory he loved her and ran so I thought maybe he could use a brush up."

She looked down at the book and brushed it off once more with her hand. "So why did you have it in the first place?" He shifted slightly and looked uncomfortable. "Was that why you… you said you were done with it… is it why you asked me to the wedding?"

He looked down at his feet awkwardly. He really hated this conversation. He nodded slowly and she smiled. "Yeah," he admitted.

She marveled at this for a moment. "I am so sorry for making fun of the book. I mean, how insensitive of me. You know me, always have to make a joke, have to mock everything."

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Forget it. It is mockable. I mean, you should have seen how embarrassed I was to even have bought the stupid thing."

"So why did you?" she asked curiously. "It's so not you."

"I don't know, it was just one of those impulses." He sighed. "Remember when I came to the inn right before it opened to take the official 'investor's tour'?" he asked her. She nodded. "And Sookie tried to set you up with the poultry guy."

"Yeah, right. I still can't believe she did that, by the way," she added.

"Then we started talking about relationships and why they were so hard and doesn't it make us sad. And I guess I just got thinking and remembered you saying something about Dr. Phil books being in our future. So I just decided to check out the books about this kind of thing and ended up buying one."

"Wow," she said, taking his story in. She looked down at the book for a moment, thinking. "What did it say?"

"What, the whole thing?" he asked with a frown.

"No," she said with a laugh. "I mean, I highly doubt it says 'Luke Danes, you have to go ask Lorelai Gilmore out _now_, and trust me because that's the right thing to do and you'll be happy for the rest of your life' because not only would that be creepy, it would mean the book was a little bit psychic. What did it say to make you come to me?"

He sat down on one of the chairs at the table next to Lorelai, and she sat down as well, still holding on to the book.

"It came with an audio tape," he said with a grimace.

She gasped. "No! You listened to it?" she asked in surprise.

"Kind of," he admitted. "Anyway, it asked me all these questions about people. Like, 'when you get good news, who do you most want to share it with?' and 'who's phone calls and visits are never unwelcome or too long?' and then after every statement it asked, annoyingly, might I add, 'Can you see her face?' and I guess… I could."

"Mine?" she clarified.

He laughed at her doubt. "Yes."

"So that's why you… the wedding."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Wow."

He took the book from her. "We don't have to keep this one," he added, getting up to toss it.

"No!" she exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing his arm and taking the book from him. "We are _so_ keeping this one."

"Why?"

"Because this is the book that got us together!" she explained. "This is our biggest supporter."

"Lorelai…" he groaned.

"Don't worry, if anyone ever sees it I'll say it was mine. Or we can say it was Rory's. Yeah, we can blame it on her."

"Fine, whatever," he said with a shrug, turning to head back to the things he had been cleaning out.

She stopped him by grabbing his arm and turned him back towards her. "Hey," she said before leaning in to kiss him deeply. She let her hands play with the hair that was sticking out from under his baseball cap while his arms slowly moved around her.

When she pulled away, she smiled at him. "I'm glad you got that book."

"Me too," he agreed softly.

"You really thought all those things about me?"

"What things?"

"That I'm the one you wanted to share good news with and the one who's phone calls and visits are never too long or unwelcome? Because, seriously, sometimes you practically threw me out of that diner."

He smiled at her. "Yeah, well, the book didn't say coffee addicted customers who beg for coffee even at midnight were taken out of the equation, so I just assumed."

She giggled, letting her hands still play with his exposed hair. "You make me sound like a drug addict."

"You _are_," he stated. "Caffeine _is_ a drug, you know."

"Luke?"

"What?"

"I was always waiting," she admitted.

"For?"

"You to ask me out."

He frowned. "But--"

"I know, _I_ never made a move. But you know me; I have a reputation for making an idiot out of myself. See: Luke and Jess's book. So I figured if you really truly felt something for me you'd ask me out eventually. You were my best friend. You still are. And it was just hard for me to tell if you had _feelings_ feelings for me or if you just thought of me as your best friend and that's where the way you felt about me came from. I'd never had a man in my life that was so important to me and I just couldn't read the signals. And plus, I was so sacred I'd mess us up and lose you and… I don't know."

"I get it," he said. "Why do you think it took me eight years?"

"And a self-help book."

"Right," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm never going to live that down am I?"

"We'll see," she said with a chuckle, removing her arms from around him and heading back to the table to finish with the books. "I just wish it hadn't taken us so long."

"It happened when it did for a reason," he told her.

"Look at you Mr. I Don't Believe in Fate."

"Well, not fate exactly, but… we weren't ready before."

"I guess," she agreed. She thought about if for a moment. "No, you're right," she said more decisively. "I think we needed those other relationships and," she rolled her eyes painfully, "marriage, before we got together."

He noticed her eye roll. "I guess now I understand your hatred of Nicole."

She looked at him for a moment. "I didn't hate her. I just really hated that relationship," she stated.

"You were jealous."

"Was not."

"You were."

"Not _jealous_, exactly, just--"

"You were jealous. Admit it."

"Well, maybe a little. But I had a right to be! You married her."

"I guess, somehow," he said.

She frowned. "You did. You had a divorce at the end of that relationship, so I think that means it was a marriage."

"Legally, maybe," he said. "In actuality it never was. It was just us fooling ourselves."

"Why did you?" she asked.

"Why did I what?"

"Why did you marry her? Why didn't you go through with the divorce the first time? Why did you move in with her? I mean, your heart was never really in it, I could tell."

"It wasn't," he agreed.

"So why did you push things with Nicole?

"I don't know. I guess, there was Nicole or there was… you. I never thought you were on the same page as me and I just never thought you and I would happen. So I tried to forget about whatever feelings I had for you at the time and tried to still end up with someone so I wouldn't become my uncle Louie."

She smiled a little. "If she hadn't… you know… the whole sockman thing, would you have still gotten divorced?"

He thought about this for a moment, clearly thinking the answer over in his head. "Eventually."

She nodded, not wanting to really push him on this anymore. "Oh."

"She and I were never really _married_," he explained again. "We were trying to work our way back up to that. But that's why getting married destroyed our relationship; we both knew it wasn't right. She always knew that emotionally I wasn't completely in our relationship. She may have _actually_ cheated on me, but I was pretty much cheating on her by being in love with… you. It wouldn't have ever been a real marriage, so at some point we would have had to get out of it. It wasn't like with you where everything clicked and I wanted to be that committed. I didn't have fun with her and feel totally comfortable with her."

"I know that feeling," she said quietly, rearranging the books on the table as she spoke. "With Max, I mean," she added, glancing at him to see if he was uncomfortable with this topic. He looked more interested than anything else, so she continued. "I was so caught up in all the fun of planning a wedding that I just didn't realize I would later have to spend my life with him. He was a good guy, he was sweet, he was good to Rory, but it just hit me suddenly that I didn't want to be around him everyday for the rest of my life. I couldn't talk to him about everything, I didn't let him into Rory's life, I couldn't have fun with him. He wasn't turning into my best friend, and that's what was lacking," she said, catching Luke's eyes and smiling. "Marrying your best friend."

He smiled at her in return. "Yeah," he agreed. "Marrying your best friend."

Her stomach churned a little and she smiled at him, going back to cleaning off the books.

xxxxxxxxxx

"She wants me to come to _dinner_," Lorelai said dramatically, walking into the diner and taking a seat on the stool nearest the cash register.

Luke looked up from the receipts in his hands. "Your mother?" She nodded. "It's because you never called her back," he stated.

It interested her how he had suddenly gotten her mother all figured out. "Hey, when did you get an A in Mastering Emily Gilmore 101?"

He shrugged. "She's pretty easy to figure out sometimes. You didn't call her back so she's now going to try and make sure she gets to talk to you by making you come to dinner."

"I don't want to go to dinner," she pouted.

"Just go," he told her. "Sooner or later you have to end this thing with your parents, you might as well just do it now."

"But Rory will be there."

"Since when are you afraid of Rory?"

"I'm not. But things between Rory and me are weird, and things between my parents and me are weird, it's weirdness all around. And they're all on one side and I'm on the other."

"Lorelai, look," Luke said, stopping what he was doing to lean on the counter closer to her. "You've got to work this thing out with Rory."

She looked down sadly. "I know."

"I know that she made a choice that disappointed you, it disappointed me, too. But she's still Rory. You still love her, she's still your best friend and your daughter. I'm guessing that you've made a few choices in your life that your mother doesn't approve of, either," he added, "and you two still manage to have some sort of relationship most of the time. You and Rory don't have to cut each other out just because she made this choice. That I'm still willing to bet she'll go back on soon."

She sighed. "I know, I know, you're right." She paused. "But I don't want to go to dinner."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

She looked up at him in surprise. "To _dinner_?"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know."

"I promised you when we got back together that you'd never have to go back in that house again if you didn't want to."

"And I'm telling you, if it will make you feel more comfortable, I want to."

She smiled at him lovingly. "I know you do," she said, holding up her left hand. "That's why I wear this," she added, turning her soft smile into a grin. "You don't have to go. I will not subject you to their torture again just yet, especially at a crucial time like this."

"If you're sure."

She nodded. "Yeah."

"So you're going to go to dinner?"

"I guess," she muttered. "I'd rather deal with my parents and Rory separately. Maybe Rory won't be there anyway. I mean, who knows if she's still going to Friday Night dinners. She doesn't have them paying for Yale anymore." She thought about that. "Hey, maybe that's why she dropped out. She finally figured out my parents and would rather drop out than keep going to dinner."

He shook his head. "I think Rory likes your parents," he reminded her.

"Well, maybe she_ did_," she joked, "then she just couldn't hack it anymore."

"Maybe," he humored her.

"Luke!" Kirk called from his table.

"What?" Luke asked.

"I need to order."

"Be right there, Kirk," he told him. "Go call your mother and tell her you'll at least talk to her."

She grumbled. "Okay, okay." She leaned across the counter and kissed him. "Bye."

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai stared at the phone on the desk. She just had to call her mother, it shouldn't be this big of a deal. Why did she find herself in this situation more and more often? Afraid to call her mother and dreading the conversation she would have with her.

She finally picked up the phone and dialed. She was about to hang up, losing her courage, when her mother answered.

"Hello?" Emily's voice said. There was a crashing noise in the background and Lorelai frowned.

"Mom?" Lorelai asked, frowning into the phone as she heard a lot of commotion on the other end after her mother had answered.

"Yes, hello. Sorry," Emily apologized. "Lorelai?"

"Yeah. Hi."

"Well, how nice of you to finally call me back."

"I told you before, my machine is on the fritz. You should call my cell if you can't get me at home."

"Perhaps it was overworked," Emily stated.

Lorelai narrowed her eyes. "Anyway. About dinner. I really don't want to--"

"Lorelai, you are not backing out of dinner."

"First of all, I never agreed _to_ dinner, second of all, I'm not trying to back out of talking to you, I would just rather talk to you and dad without Rory around."

"Oh," Emily said. "Well, maybe we can work something out."

"How about you come to the inn?" she asked. She heard the words _what in the world are you doing r_un through her mind. Stupid Luke. Stupid Luke could make her be mature and do the right thing.

"In Stars Hollow?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, my inn in Stars Hollow, not one of my other inns. Those inns are just not up to par yet," Lorelai replied sarcastically.

"Sarcasm does not become you, Lorelai."

"Mom, lunch at the inn or not?"

"I suppose that could be okay," Emily said. "I'll check with your father."

"Sure, let me know."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Lorelai gulped. "Uh, sure, tomorrow," she agreed. She glanced at her calendar. "Yeah, I think tomorrow is okay. Oh wait I have…" _don't back out,_ she reminded herself. "Oh no, that's okay. Tomorrow is good. Tomorrow."

"Okay, we'll see you then," Emily agreed.

"I thought you had to check with Dad?"

"I'm sure he will agree," Emily said quickly, and Lorelai swore she wanted to get the plans cemented before Lorelai had a chance to back out.

"Okay," Lorelai agreed. "Tomorrow," she said, making a face as she hung up the phone.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Rory!" Emily called, knocking on the door to the pool house around ten the next morning.

Rory groaned and lifted her head from her pillow, about to go answer the door, when she remembered she hadn't spent the night alone. _Crap_, she thought, looking at Logan next to her. _I shouldn't have talked him into staying._

"Coming, Grandma!" Rory called. She nudged Logan. "Wake up," she hissed.

Logan groaned and wiped his eyes sleepily. "What's the matter?"

"My grandmother is at the door," Rory said. "Don't let her see you here, okay?" she said, getting up to go answer the door. "Just stay in here until she's gone."

Logan nodded. "Whatever you say, Ace."

Rory sighed and moved quickly to the door. She pulled it open and smiled at Emily.

"Oh. Did I wake you?" Emily asked. "It's after ten in the morning, I assumed you'd be awake already."

"Oh, it's okay," Rory said, putting a hand to her hair to see if it was out of order. "What's up?"

"Felicity is doing the laundry," Emily said. "Do you have any laundry you need done?"

Rory panicked, knowing laundry was in her bedroom. "No, no laundry, Grandma," Rory said quickly.

"No laundry?" Emily asked. "You must have laundry. You haven't done any yourself, have you? Because that's what we pay Felicity to do."

"It's okay, Grandma, really," Rory said. "I, uh, I have a lot of clean clothes left."

"Nonsense," Emily said. "We may as well wash all your dirty clothes now, then you'll have more clean clothes to choose from."

"I don't like clean clothes, clean clothes are overrated."

"Rory, honestly, what is the matter with you this morning?"

"Nothing," Rory said quickly. "Okay. I'll go get my laundry. You just wait here, be back in a sec," she said, moving back to the bedroom quickly.

"She gone?" Logan asked. Rory shook her head fiercely and put a finger to her lips. "She wants my laundry!" Rory said in a hushed whisper.

She then went around the room gathering up clothes into a laundry basket, not caring if they were clean or not, just wanting something to give to her grandmother so she would leave. She took the basket and returned to Emily, handing it to her.

"Here you go," Rory said, trying to sound cheerful. "Thanks."

"Wonderful," Emily said, taking the laundry basket and leaving. Rory sighed a sigh of relief and plopped down on the couch.

"Now she's gone, right?" Logan asked, emerging carefully.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"That's okay," Logan said, and watched as Rory picked up her cell phone and checked for messages. She frowned when she saw that she had none. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Nothing," Rory said sadly.

"Why don't you go talk to your mom?" Logan asked her.

Rory shook her head. "Why would you suggest that?"

"Because you're clearly waiting for her to call you."

"Am not," Rory said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Besides, she can't accept my decision."

"Rory, who _does_ accept your decision?" he asked.

"My grandparents do! I _thought_ you did."

"Your grandparents don't want you to drop out. They let you stay with them, yes, but that doesn't mean they accept this."

"Well, my mom told me I couldn't even come home if I decided to drop out, so my grandparents are a little more accepting than her."

"And _I_ don't accept your choice. I mean, if you really think this is best, then fine, but I think it's wrong."

"Logan--"

"I thought you were different, Rory," he said. "I thought you had a brain and a dream and a good head on your shoulders."

"I do!" Rory said. "Just because I'm taking time off from Yale means that I'm not smart anymore?"

"Rory, I just, I want what's best for you."

The door opened and Emily appeared again. "Rory, Felicity is looking for more white--" she stopped when she saw Logan, shock on her face. "Logan. Hello."

"Emily," Logan said nervously.

"You're here early," Emily said.

"Yeah," Rory said, knowing that by their looks there was no way they could make up an excuse. They had both just clearly woken up. "Uh, Logan was here last night and fell asleep, so he stayed over."

Emily nodded numbly. "Yes. I see."

"And he was just going," Rory added, shooting Logan a glare.

"Yeah, going," Logan said with frustration. He returned to Rory's room to change into his clothes from what he had slept in.

Emily stared at Rory for a long moment and Rory looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry, I should have told you Logan was here."

Emily nodded dully. "Well. Logan will _not_ be staying here anymore, understand?"

Rory looked up at her in surprise. "Yes. Sorry."

"I _will not_ have you making your mother's mistake," Emily added, turning on her heels and leaving.

xxxxxxxxxx

"What's the emergency?" Luke asked, arriving at the inn later that afternoon, toolbox in hand.

Lorelai spun around and smiled in relief when she saw him. "Oh, thank God. Dishwasher. Can you fix it?" she asked, looking as helpless as possible.

"I'll see," he said, heading towards the kitchen.

"Please, please, tell me you can fix it. We've been washing them by hand and it's taking forever," she whined, following behind him. "And we're out of plates and people are getting antsy and…"

"I'm on it," he told her.

"Thank you Luke," she said, flashing him a grin.

"No problem." She followed him to the dishwasher and watched as he attempted to find the problem when Michel came in.

"Lorelai, phone for you," he said, looking annoyed that he had to walk all the way to the kitchen to find her. She nodded to him and he disappeared.

"I'll be out there if you need me," she told Luke. He nodded and she returned to the lobby to get the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Rory."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"I, uh… is this a bad time?" she asked.

"Well, kind of. There's chaos in the kitchen, Luke's trying to fix the chaos by repairing the dishwasher, and I'm really dreading lunch."

"Grandma and Grandpa?" Rory asked.

"Yeah," Lorelai stated.

"Right. I can call back then…"

"What's up?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to… I don't know… I just. There was a little incident this morning and…" she sighed. "Never mind. I shouldn't have called you."

"Oh," Lorelai said. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. I don't know what I was thinking calling you."

"Rory, you can always talk to me."

"I know. But this is dumb anyway."

"What happened?"

"I just wanted some advice on how to deal with Grandma, but that is so inappropriate to ask you right now…"

"Well I did write the book on that subject."

"Please, just forget it. I've gotta go."

Lorelai shrugged. "Okay. Call me if you change your mind."

"Bye," Rory said. They hung up, and Lorelai stared at the phone with confusion for a moment.

"Lorelai."

She groaned inwardly and looked up. "Hi Mom. Dad," she said calmly. "You're early."

"Not as much traffic as we thought," Richard stated.

"Oh. I see. Okay, well…"

"Is this a bad time?" Richard asked. "If we're too early we can wait."

"No, no, it's fine. I just, uh, let me check on the kitchen, the dishwasher's broken and, well, chaos is taking place, so…

"Right, of course," Emily agreed.

"One second," she told her parents. "If you guys want to go ahead and have a seat, follow me," she added, heading towards the dining room. She led her parents to a table and sat them down. "I'll be right back," she said, heading towards the kitchen. She ran into Luke on her way.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "So, what's the verdict?"

"It'll pull through," he told her with a smirk.

"Oh, thank God," she said, putting a hand over her heart. "You fixed it? That fast?"

"Yeah, sure, it wasn't too big of a deal."

"I swear, we're going to fire that handyman who's supposed to do these things and get a reliable one." She paused. "Looking for a second job?" she teased.

"Flattering, but no, thanks."

"Darn."

He nodded towards the dining room. "Your parents are here already?"

"Yeah, they got here early," she said. "Are they watching us?"

"Yes."

"I guess I should accept my fate and eat with them, then," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Thank you so much for fixing the dishwasher. I owe you," she said, raising her eyebrows.

He laughed a little. "I won't forget it."

"See you tonight?"

"Sure."

"I'll let you get back to _your_ business," she added, leaning in to kiss him. "Bye Babe."

"Bye," he replied. He gave a nod to Emily and Richard just to have some sort of hint of being polite and then headed towards the front door.

"Thank you!" she called after him again. He turned and waved her off before leaving the room.

"Sorry," Lorelai apologized, sitting down with her parents.

"What was Luke doing here in the middle of the day?" Emily asked.

_Here we go_, Lorelai thought. "Fixing my dishwasher emergency."

"Luke was?" Richard asked. "Don't you have some sort of handyman to do those things?"

"Yes, but he never returns our calls. We're in the process of finding someone new." She waited for someone to respond. "So are we going to jump right in with this topic or are we going to start with how you stabbed me in the back for a change of pace?"

"Lorelai, we did not stab you in the back," Richard said.

"I came to you. I asked for your help to _not let Rory drop out._ You said okay. Next thing I know, you decided, _without me_, that Rory _is_ going to drop out."

"Well, when Rory explained the situation to us, she said she had nowhere to go."

"That was _supposed_ to encourage her to go back to school," Lorelai stated.

"Rory is a smart girl. She will make the right choice," Emily added.

"I know that. At least, the _old_ Rory would have. There's no telling what this _new_ Rory will do at any given moment."

Emily stiffened a little, remembering the glimpse she had caught of the new Rory this morning.

"Lorelai, you have to understand that we were just trying to do what's best for Rory," Richard said.

"You're _always_ trying to do what's best," Lorelai stated. "Only you never really seem to know what's best!"

"Lorelai, look," Richard said, "we don't want Rory to drop out of Yale forever. None of us want that. We don't even _really_ want her to take a year off. But we can't force her to do something she doesn't want to do, and right now she doesn't want to go back to Yale."

Lorelai sighed. "I know she doesn't."

"So what do you suggest we do with her? Leave her on the streets?"

"No! Of course not."

"So?"

"I didn't mean she had to go and live with you guys. I told her she couldn't live with me if she wasn't going to school and was just going to bum around. I wanted her to find a job or find some kind of solution so that she would be doing something productive and remind her why she's in school in the first place. And now all she's doing is lying around your pool house anyhow. It's like she played us against each other. She got the better end of the deal and doesn't have to do anything by going to live with you. I had a plan, and _that's_ why I felt like you stabbed me in the back. She just came to you and suddenly my plan was out the window _and_ now she thinks I just kicked her out of her house!"

"Well, Lorelai, you never explained all that to us," Emily reasoned with apparent regret.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Well you told me you were on my side, I didn't think you were going to switch teams so quickly."

Richard looked to Emily. "Maybe we were a bit too hasty taking Rory in," Emily said. She couldn't forget the fact that Logan had been in the pool house that morning. She wasn't sure how that was her fault, but she assumed if Rory had been at home Logan wouldn't have been staying over.

Emily hadn't been sure about this whole arrangement in the first place, and now she was really wondering if it was right. She wanted Rory back in Yale, now, and she no longer had the energy to fight with Lorelai about why they had been right to support Rory.

"Maybe," Lorelai repeated softly. The three of them sat in silence for a moment. "It doesn't matter now anyway," Lorelai said a bit sadly. "What's done is done."

Emily looked down at her silverware and nodded. The waiter came over to take their orders then, which was a nice interruption. When he walked away, no one spoke for a few minutes.

"Well," Lorelai said, "this is fun."

"Now what about you not telling us about your engagement?" Emily finally asked.

"What's there to tell?" Lorelai asked them, "You hate Luke, why would I run to you to tell you the news?"

"We don't _hate_ Luke, Lorelai," Richard said. "Luke is a fine young man."

"We just don't think he's right for you," Emily added.

"There you go again thinking things when you don't know anything."

"Lorelai, you are capable of so much. We would hate to see you be held back."

"By Luke?" Lorelai asked. Emily nodded. "You know that if it wasn't for Luke I would be nowhere right now. There's a good chance I wouldn't even have the inn."

"What?" Emily asked, her face wrinkled in confusion.

"You have no idea how much Luke has been there for me through this whole inn thing, from the very, _very_ beginning, when it was just an idea. He's made it possible when I got stuck, he's always encouraged me and told me I could do this, especially when I thought I couldn't."

"Well what about Christopher?" Emily interjected. Lorelai stiffened.

"What about him?"

"You've always been waiting for Christopher. He has himself together now, Lorelai, he wants to be with you."

"I know. But I don't want to be with him."

"But all those years--"

"Mom, if I wanted to be with Christopher, I would have been with Christopher after you broke Luke and I up. Remember that?"

"But Lorelai, this is _Christopher_," Richard added.

"I know!" she exclaimed. "I know, it's _Christopher_, the same guy who did nothing but hurt and abandon me and Rory time and time again."

"He has himself _together_ now."

"So that just erases all the years of hurt?"

"We're just saying, just because Christopher has hurt you before doesn't mean you should just settle for someone else."

"Being with _Christopher_ would be settling," she told them. "Luke is not settling. Luke is amazing and he's perfect, and truth be told, I probably don't even deserve him. Christopher and I were _never_ meant to be, as much as you want to believe that. We were just kids who were stupid and we ended up with Rory. Which is a plus. But had we never had Rory, Christopher and I probably would have broken up and been over before we finished high school. It's only because we have Rory together that he keeps coming back into our lives and why you think we're meant to be and why I kept going back to him and wanting to try again. But it wasn't right, and that's over now."

"You would be married to him right now if his girlfriend had never gotten pregnant," Emily reminded her. "But now you're just telling us that he's history and the man you could have been with back then as well is the person you now know you want to spend the rest of your life with?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Life works in funny ways. I know you'll never understand how in love with Luke I am, you'll probably always think that I am settling for Luke, and if that's how you feel, then fine. Feel that way, because _I_ know the truth. But you have to understand, I'm marrying Luke. February is going to come, and I'm going to marry Luke. There is no negotiation about it, and this is not going to end like my last engagement did. So if you're interested in coming to the wedding and being a part of the wedding plans and being an active part of our lives and your future grandchildren's lives, then you better start getting it into your head that it's Luke that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. I'm a big girl, and I can see all my options and I can make my own choices, and I have made the choice that Luke is the only man I could ever want to be with for the rest of my life and have a family with."

Emily looked down and Richard nodded. "I know you are."

"What?"

"In love with Luke. It's as clear as day, Lorelai. It always has been."

"So why on Earth did you want to take that away from me?"

Richard and Emily were both silent, apparently neither one with an answer.

"And furthermore," she added, feeling like she was on a roll. "I don't want either of you trying to change Luke or taking subtle shots at him," she said, glaring at her mother. "Because if Luke doesn't feel comfortable around you, I won't make him be around you, and that means I won't be around you very often, either."

"Fine," Emily stated.

Richard nodded. "Very well then."

Lorelai raised her eyebrows skeptically and nodded. "Well, good."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Luke's," Luke answered the phone at the diner the next day.

"Hi, uh, is Luke there?"

Luke frowned. Who called the diner that didn't know him, yet would _ask_ for him? "This is Luke."

"Oh, hi, Mr. Danes. This is Logan Huntzberger." Luke frowned, knowing this was something he didn't want to get into. "You know, Rory's boyfriend?"

"Right. I know."

"Oh. Okay."

"Can I help you with something?"

"I know you probably don't have the best opinion of me," Logan said, "what with the yacht and the vow renewal and all and the fact that Rory's mother doesn't seem to like me and you're dating her."

"Do you have a point?"

"Oh. Sorry. Look, it's just, this thing with Rory and her mother, it's killing Rory. And I can only assume that her mother is feeling the same way."

Luke sighed. "She is."

"And they're both too stubborn to fix it on their own. At least, I know Rory doesn't want to make the first move, and since her mother hasn't made a move, I assume she doesn't want to either."

Luke frowned. "Where's this going?"

"I think they need a little push."

"Oh."

"And I've tried to talk Rory into going and just talking to her mother, but it isn't working."

"Yeah, not working with her mother either," Luke grumbled.

"I mean, I don't know firsthand how close they really are, but from the way Rory's talked about her mother, I don't think this is normal."

"Definitely not," Luke agreed.

"So I just thought, maybe if we could get them in the same room they'll talk."

"They will kill us, you know," Luke told him.

"I know. But I _know_ Rory wants to work this out."

Luke sighed. "So does Lorelai."

"So what's the harm of just pushing them to work it out now?"

"Well… I don't know. It _is_ their fight."

"She won't drop out of Yale," Logan said suddenly.

"What?" Luke asked with a frown.

"I can _tell_ she's already regretting it. I've tried to talk her into going back and slowly she stops resisting me so much. And it's not too late for her to change her mind."

"What does that have to do with Lorelai?"

"If she just talked to her mother _I know_ she would listen this time. Last time she was upset and worked up and everything. Now that she's starting to regret the decision, I think she just really needs to talk to her mother."

Luke sighed. He knew this was screaming bad idea. He didn't know much about this Logan kid, and he wasn't sure he really liked him. He knew getting into the middle of this and tricking both Lorelai _and_ Rory was screaming disaster. But if it could get them to fix things _and_ it had a shot at getting Rory to go back to Yale, then maybe it was worth it. But how much could he trust that Logan knew what he was talking about?

"Fine," Luke said. "Have any ideas on how to get them in the same room?"

"Well, I thought that's where you could help," Logan stated.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Rory!"

"Ah, the ears, Lane, the ears," Rory said, removing her cell phone from her ear. "What's up?"

"I really need to talk to you," Lane said urgently.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's this whole thing. The band, and… Zach. And my mother," Lane added.

"What's wrong?" Rory asked with concern.

"Can you just come over today or something?"

"Come over?" Rory asked with a frown. "Like Stars Hollow, come over to Stars Hollow?"

"That _is_ where I live."

"But—"

"Please, Rory. I really need to talk to you. This isn't over the phone talking, this is girl talk talk."

"Okay," Rory agreed. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you, you're the best," Lane said.

"See you soon," Rory added, closing her phone and gathering up her things.

She drove to Stars Hollow, a little afraid of going back to the town. Everyone would see her. Everyone probably knew that she was dropping out of Yale and about the yacht. And that she wasn't talking to her mother. They could clearly see that Rory wasn't back in town for the summer. If someone saw her in town and then told her mother that she had been there, how would that look?

She hoped that no one would notice. They might see her car in front of Lane's, but maybe they wouldn't notice it was hers.

She pulled up in front of Lane's place. She was just about to get out of the car when her cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Rory?"

"Lane?" she asked. "I just got to your house."

"Oh," Lane said. "Darn, I was hoping to catch you before you got there."

"Why? What's up?"

"I had to go in to work," she said. "There was an emergency, short staffed, so Luke called and I agreed to go in."

"So you're not home?" Rory asked, getting a bit irritated.

"No. I'm sorry. I just, I really need the money and so I needed the extra hours…"

"No, forget about it. I guess I'll just go back to Hartford…"

"Come to the diner?" Lane asked.

"Uh, well…" Rory said, searching for an excuse. "I can't, really, what if…"

"Oh, your mom, right. She's not here though."

"But Luke is. And he'll see me here and then he'll tell my mom I was here."

"So you're afraid of Luke?"

"No! I'm not afraid of him, I'm just…"

"Rory, please."

"But Lane…"

"Okay, you're right. I guess it's unfair of me to ask you to come here. I just really need to talk and I'm asking you to do things you don't want to do. I'm sorry."

"Can't you take a break or something?" Rory asked, suddenly feeling guilty. Lane needed to talk to her. She's been friends with Lane since kindergarten, she couldn't bail on her now. Especially after all the times Lane had been there when she needed to talk. She talked to her for a long time about the whole Dean affair, even blowing off band practice for her.

"I just started," Lane said, sounding sad. "It's okay, forget it. Sorry you drove all the way out here."

Rory groaned. "Okay, I'll be there. I'm leaving my car here though so it's not as noticeable. Are you sure my mom isn't around?"

"I'm sure."

"I'll be right there," she said.

"Thank you so much, Rory. I owe you!" _Yeah, you do_, Rory thought, hanging up the phone.

She walked over to Luke's, nervous about the whole thing. Luke would be good. She had even called Luke before. Yeah, Luke would be fine. But what if her mother came in? She was known to appear at Luke's at any time. What if Ms. Patty was there? No, she usually had classes at this time. Rory sighed and decided to suck it up for Lane.

The bell above the diner jingled, and she noticed it was quiet inside. _Short staffed? _she wondered. "There's no one here they need staff for," she mumbled. Luke appeared from the kitchen.

Rory bit her lip and Luke raised his eyebrows.

"Hey Luke," she greeted carefully.

"Rory. Hi."

"I, uh, sorry to just come in here like this…"

"People usually do. It _is_ a diner," Luke joked.

"Right. True. But, well, you know."

"What brings you to town?" he asked with a curious expression.

"Lane called, she said she needed to talk to me," Rory said, glancing around the diner in paranoia.

Luke frowned. "Oh. So why are you here?"

"To see Lane."

"Lane's not here," he told her.

Rory gasped, her mouth opening. "But, she told me she had to work!"

"She just went out on an errand," Luke added. "How long ago did you talk to her?"

"Like two minutes!" Rory said, frustrated. "She could have told me she was going on an errand, I could have met her."

"She should be back soon," Luke added.

"Maybe I should just go and wait for her somewhere…" Rory said.

"She's not going to come in," Luke told her.

"Lane?" Rory asked. "But I thought…"

"No. Your mother."

"Oh," Rory said, sitting on a stool. "You're sure?"

"She's shopping. In Hartford. She won't be back until much later."

Rory accepted this. "Well, she _is_ shopping," Rory agreed.

"As long as you're here, you want something to eat?"

Rory thought it over for a moment and realized she was starving and had missed Luke's food a great deal. "Burger and fries?" Rory asked.

"You got it," Luke said, disappearing into the kitchen.

Rory sighed and let herself relax. She was playing with the menu in front of her on the counter when she heard the bell jingle. She looked towards the door. She gasped.

_Sure, shopping_, Rory thought with sarcasm.

xxxxxxxxxx

Okay, so the Luke and Logan thing… weird? Unpredictable? Something new? You decide, lol. But I had to try and be different from everything else I've read out there. 

I split this here because it went on waaaaay too long otherwise. ;) Cruel? Maybe.


	6. Part 6

Part 6

A/N: Last part! Phew. I lost steam, lol. And I don't know I think ever since the fourth part I've kind of been unsure of what I was doing, so it was time to wrap it up! It's on the long side, sorry. 

xxxxxxxxxx

Lorelai noticed Rory and stood in shock. Their eyes locked, and Luke appeared from the kitchen, not surprised to see Lorelai or to see this scene taking place.

Rory knew judging by the look that Lorelai was giving Luke at that moment that she had been tricked, too.

Luke smiled at them both with a mix of innocence and apology. "I'll be upstairs," he stated.

Both Lorelai and Rory watched him with shocked expressions. Lorelai turned to look at Rory after Luke had disappeared.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Maybe you should ask Luke and Lane, they seem to have a better idea than I do."

"What?"

"We were tricked," Rory clarified. "Lane called me saying she needed to talk. I get here and Lane calls me and tells me she had to work. So I come over here, and she's not even here. Luke tells me she just went out on an errand and not to worry, you're shopping and won't be by anytime soon."

Lorelai laughed a little. "Oh."

"It _was _well done," Rory admitted. "And you? I assume you were tricked?"

"Luke called me and told me to come by."

"And that's all?"

"Hey, I think it was a lot harder to get you in here than me," Lorelai noted.

"True," Rory agreed. They looked at each other uncomfortably for a moment. "So…"

"So…" Lorelai repeated.

"Why'd they do it?"

"Probably because they can see we're miserable and we need to talk."

"You're miserable too?" Rory asked.

"Well, when it comes to you, yeah," Lorelai said.

"I miss you," Rory added.

Lorelai smiled a little. "I miss you, too."

"I'm so sorry, Mom."

"Sorry for what?" Lorelai asked, taking a seat next to Rory.

"For making this mess."

"It's not all your fault," Lorelai assured her.

"Well it was when _I_ said _I_ wanted to drop out that all of this started."

"I'm disappointed, Rory," Lorelai told her. "I don't want you to drop out. I think it's a mistake. I know you can do this and you shouldn't let one person crush your dreams like that. That's not you. But I still love you. You're still my daughter."

"I don't want to disappoint you," Rory said, looking down at the counter.

"You can't live your life for other people," Lorelai told her. "I mean, I didn't exactly live my life so my parents weren't disappointed in me."

Rory laughed a little. "True."

"But this isn't just about me, this is about your and your future."

"I _will_ go back later."

"Are you sure? Who's to say that a year from now you'll be any less confused?"

"Well, I don't know, but a year is a long time away. I should have everything figured out by then."

"You know you could go to school somewhere else, anywhere, for the year."

Rory shrugged. "I don't know."

"Yale was your dream," Lorelai said. "I never thought you'd give up on your dream so easily."

"Things happen."

"_Was_ it your dream?" Lorelai asked suddenly.

Rory frowned. "What?"

"Maybe it wasn't. Maybe I turned into my own mother."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sometimes I think maybe it was _my_ dream for you, the whole Harvard, Ivy League thing. Maybe it was because I wanted the best for you or because I didn't do all those things myself."

"It _was_ my dream, Mom," Rory insisted. "It's all I worked for."

"Then why give up?" Lorelai asked. Rory frowned, and looked like she wasn't sure. "Things have always been hard, Rory. Remember when you started at Chilton and you were behind?"

Rory shrugged. "Yeah, but--"

"They told you then that you might not be able to catch up. Did you listen? No. You caught up and you were valedictorian."

"But that was different."

"How?"

"Because they didn't know me."

"How is that any different than Logan's father telling you _he_ doesn't think you can do it?"

"Because I was his intern! That's what you do, you evaluate your interns. And he's good at what he does, if he says I don't have it, I should listen."

"Come on, Rory. You don't think that just for a moment it was weird that he offered you the internship after that disastrous dinner? That Logan's mother and grandfather didn't approve of you, but his father suddenly does?"

"Well, it was a little weird," Rory admitted.

"And did he ever see any of your writing?" Lorelai questioned.

"Well, no. But he doesn't think I have what it takes to _get_ the stories."

"Do _you_ think you have what it takes?"

"I used to."

"Before all this?"

"Yeah."

"So just go back to that, Rory. Just block this out and pretend it never happened."

"But I can't do that." She paused. "Can I?"

"Yes, you can."

"But what if he's right?"

There was silence for a moment. "What if he's _wrong_?" Lorelai replied.

Rory thought about that for a moment. "I _want_ him to be wrong."

"Then that's what's important," Lorelai noted. "If you still want this, you still want this, and you can work for it. Maybe just a little harder. Put yourself out there a little more. But there is no reason in the world why you can't have this."

"You really think I can do it?" Rory asked.

"I _know_ you can do it. Luke knows you can do it, everyone knows you can do it. Everyone _except_ the one guy who's name we won't mention."

"But he's the one who should know if I can do it or not."

"Sometimes in life, Rory, people aren't as honest and don't have as good of intentions as you'd like them to have."

"How do we know he had bad intentions?"

"We don't. But you have to look at the evidence and say that if anyone had bad intentions, it might have to be him. That's why you can't take his word on this one. Keep going, keep working towards this and if _more_ people tell you what he told you, then _maybe_ it's time to start questioning your choice. But not from one person who may not have had the best of intentions."

Rory nodded and looked down at her hands. "You're right."

"I am?" Lorelai asked. "I mean, _I_ know I am, but I'm surprised you think I am."

Rory laughed a little. "I've been thinking, a lot, the past few weeks. And talking to Logan and Grandma and Grandpa, and, well, they all think I can do it. And it's weird. When I decided to drop out of Yale, everything was all wrong. I didn't know what to do with myself without school. It's not like I could just go out and get a great job. And without school to focus on, well, I was lost."

"Does this mean you're going to go back?"

Rory took a deep breath. "You really, _really_ think I can do it?"

"I would tell you that you could if you couldn't."

Rory smiled. "Like the time when I was nine and wanted to juggle in the school talent show and you told me I had no talent in juggling?"

Lorelai nodded, smiling at the memory. "Exactly."

"Okay. Then yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes, I'm going back."

"Oh, thank God," Lorelai breathed, pulling Rory to her. "Don't ever scare me with things like dropping out of Yale again."

"Not until next summer," Rory teased. "What about us, are we good?"

"We're good."

"Good." Rory smiled. "Thank you for not giving up on me."

Lorelai smiled. "I will never give up on you," she said, breaking away from the hug.

"I'm sorry for everything."

"Me too," Lorelai agreed.

"Can I come home?"

"What? You mean you aren't having fun livin' it up with the Gilmores?"

Rory giggled. "I'd rather be with you."

"Then of course."

Rory smiled. "Are you going to go kill Luke now?"

"In a minute."

"Before you kill him, can I thank him? Because it's kind of hard to thank him after he's already dead."

"Well, I'm not _really_ going to kill him, because he did get us to work this out. But I'll let him think I am."

"Evil," Rory told her, then she gasped. "You're getting married!"

Lorelai grinned. "I know."

"Now we can _really_ be excited and celebrate this together!" Rory exclaimed.

Lorelai held out her left hand so Rory could examine the ring again. She looked at it for a few moments. "Pretty, huh?" Lorelai asked her.

"It's perfect for you," Rory said. "Oh, I'm so happy for you!" She flung her arms around Lorelai and held her tight. "Congratulations."

"Thanks, Babe," Lorelai replied, kissing Rory on the head. "Now, I guess I'll go tell Luke it's safe to come out," Lorelai said, getting up off her stool.

Rory smiled. "Okay."

Lorelai went behind the curtain and up the stairs to Luke's apartment. She entered without knocking, knowing he was probably waiting for her.

He was standing in the kitchen, doing something at the sink, when she came in. He couldn't read her expression, and when she was headed straight for him he couldn't tell if she was ready to kill him or not.

She marched right over to him and threw her arms around him. He seemed to be taken my surprise and slowly put his arms back around her.

"Thanks," she whispered in his ear softly.

"I'm guessing talking to Rory went well?"

She nodded, pulling away from him so she could look at him. "She's going back to Yale."

He raised his eyebrows. "Logan was right."

Lorelai frowned. "Logan?"

"He told me that if you two could just talk it out, he really thought Rory would decide not to drop out."

"He was in on this, too?" Lorelai asked. Luke nodded. "It was his idea, actually, getting you two in the same room so you would talk, he got me to agree to it and figure out how to do it."

"You, Lane, Logan, any other L named accomplices out there?"

He shook his head with a smile. "No, I think that was about it."

She sighed. "I think I should talk to Logan." Luke raised his eyebrows. "Maybe I jumped to conclusions about him. He did want Rory and I to talk things out, apparently he didn't want her to drop out, and he took the blame for the yacht thing at the trial."

"Maybe he's not so bad," Luke agreed.

"Maybe not," Lorelai agreed. "But anyway, thank _you_ for agreeing to the plan and setting it up," she said, leaning in to kiss his neck.

"I thought you'd be a little more mad about this," Luke stated.

She raised her eyebrows. "Would you rather I be mad?" she asked, pulling away.

"Uh, no, not particularly," Luke realized.

"Because we _could_ fight, then we could have some great make-up sex."

"I'd rather bypass the fighting," he stated.

She chuckled. "Me too." She leaned up to give him a deep kiss, pulling him as close to her as possible. There was a knock on the open door, and she broke away suddenly to see Rory.

"I guess you decided not to kill him," Rory stated.

Lorelai smiled at Rory. "Sorry."

"No, sorry for interrupting. I just, wanted to say thanks to Luke."

Luke shrugged. "It was nothing. It was Logan's idea."

Rory raised her eyebrows. "Logan, my Logan?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah."

"He was in on this, too?" Rory asked, wrinkling her nose. "You _talked_ with him?" she added in surprise.

Luke nodded. "His idea to get both of you in the same room."

"But you organized it all, didn't you?" Rory asked knowingly. "So thanks."

"Anytime."

"And thanks for always believing in me." She moved across the room to give a hug to Luke. "And congratulations," she added.

"Oh," Luke realized, "Right. Thanks."

She grinned at him. "Well I'm going to leave you two to do, uh… whatever it is you want to do," Rory said uncomfortably. "I guess I'm going to go call Logan and then go talk to Grandma and Grandpa and tell them I'm going back to Yale."

Lorelai nodded. "Okay, Kiddo."

"I'll call you later," she told her mom.

"Okay. Rory?"

"Hmm?" Rory asked, turning to face her mother.

"I want to meet Logan. I mean, I know I've met him, like, twice, but I want a _real_ dinner with him, without my parents around so I can get a word in and not look like an idiot. Our type of dinner."

Rory laughed. "Okay." She looked to them. "I want him to meet you, too, like_ really_ get to meet you. And Luke."

"And me?" Luke asked with a frown.

"Well, yeah. You _are_ going to be my stepfather."

Lorelai smiled. "Yeah, that will be good. You, me, Logan and Luke."

Rory smiled in return. "Yeah. It's a date." She turned back to the door. "See you guys later," she added before slipping out.

"Rory's coming home for the rest of summer," she told him.

"I assumed," Luke replied.

"So you better get used to saying over with Rory there."

"I don't know--"

"No excuses. We're getting married, you have to get used to this now."

He grumbled. "Yeah, okay."

"Good." She kissed him on the cheek. "Hey, maybe we should take her to see the house."

He frowned. "I think she knows your house."

She giggled. "No, silly. The new house."

"Oh," he realized. "Yeah, we can do that. Is she okay with that whole issue?"

"I'm sure she is. I haven't talked to her about it in depth, but I have a feeling she'll be fine."

"If she's not then we can always sell it to Kirk," he added.

"True," Lorelai laughed. "But we're not going to."

Luke shrugged. "He's got a lot of money, we could rip him off and make a fortune."

She laughed. "Yes, because that sounds like you, Luke."

"I have my secrets."

She smiled at him lovingly. "I don't think I've ever been this happy. I mean, now that things are good with Rory and you and I are engaged, everything is just… wow."

He smiled and kissed her softly in reply. She put her arms on his shoulders and gave them a squeeze, then moved them around his neck. "When you first met me, what did you think?" she asked suddenly.

"That you were insane."

"And what do you think now?"

"That you're insane."

She raised her eyebrows. "Well, good to know you're consistent with your thoughts."

He chuckled. "Well if it helps, I also love you."

She wrinkled her face in thought. "Helps a little."

"Thought it might."

"Heeey, Luke?"

"What?"

"Thanks."

He looked at her for a moment, not really sure what exactly she was thanking him for. "You're welcome."

Later that day, Rory had returned to Hartford, smiling to herself, realizing how relieved she felt. She was extremely glad she had worked things out when her mother, and knowing she was going back to Yale next year was also a relief. She had felt lost and nervous, and her future seemed to be a question mark when she had decided to take time off.

"Grandma? Grandpa?" Rory asked, approaching them as they sat at the table, discussing something or other.

"Yes, Rory?" Emily asked. "I'm glad you're here, actually. You know, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to stay in the house with us."

"Yes," Richard said, "I know firsthand that the pool house can be cold and lonely."

"And you _do_ have a bedroom of your own in here," Emily added.

Rory knew what was happening here. "Well, first of all, I'm sorry about the whole Logan thing," she said, looking down at her feet. "And I secondly, I will be moving, but not in here."

"What?" Emily asked, alarmed. "You will not be moving out on your own!"

"No, no," Rory corrected. "I'm going back home to Stars Hollow."

Richard frowned. "With your mother?"

Rory nodded. "Yeah. We talked today and I decided I'm going to go back home with her and Luke."

Richard and Emily looked at each other at the mention of Luke. "Are you sure, Rory? Because you're welcome here," Richard said.

Rory nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. Thank you for _everything_," she added. "You've been amazing and I won't forget it."

They both nodded. "You can come to us anytime, Rory," Emily added, genuinely relieved that Rory was going to be going back home. Whatever had happened with her and Lorelai to get Rory back to Stars Hollow was fine with her. After walking in on her and Logan, Emily had wondered if Rory had been given too much freedom at a time when she was too confused.

"I know. And thank you. But everything is okay with Mom and me now, and…" she took a deep breath and then smiled up at them. "I'm going back to Yale!"

Richard and Emily jumped up in excitement. "Oh, that's wonderful news!" Richard declared.

"Yes, truly wonderful," Emily agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. They both ran to hug Rory, and she smiled, remembering when they had first found out she was going to be going to Yale and had been ecstatic.

_This is a new beginning_, she told herself. "Yes, it is," she told them with a smile.

"Let's celebrate!" Richard said, heading off to get the Champaign.

"Sure, let's celebrate," Rory agreed with a small smile.

Emily nodded in agreement and made a mental note to call Lorelai later and tell her, subtly, what a great job she was doing with Rory. Because, Emily realized, Rory was who she was because of Lorelai. She was apparently going back to Yale after a talk with Lorelai. And Emily knew firsthand that it wasn't easy raising a child. She had often thought Lorelai was lucky, because Rory was not a child like Lorelai had been, rebellious and defiant. However, having Rory in her home for a few months Emily realized that Rory could make mistakes, too, and it was Lorelai who was preventing that all these years.

And, she thought a little less bitterly than normal, she had to send her something to congratulate her on her engagement.

She was her daughter, after all.

xxxxxxxxxx

"God," Lorelai moaned, opening the door for Luke. "I feel like I'm the one meeting the parents here."

He chuckled and kissed her before stepping in the door. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know what to wear," she said with a grumble, closing the door behind Luke and heading towards the stairs. He followed her into the living room and stopped as she began going up the steps. "Come up," she added.

He hesitated slightly. "But you're getting ready," he pointed out.

"So?" she asked with a laugh. "Come up."

He shrugged and followed her up the stairs, listening to her prattle on about how she had nothing to wear, and anything she felt like wearing wasn't clean.

"Relax," he told her, picking up a skirt off her bed and moving it to the side so he could sit down.

"And why are you so relaxed? You hate these kinds of things."

He shrugged as she pulled her t-shirt off and examined the choice of blouses that were hanging in front of her in the closet. "Ugh, which one?"

"They're all fine," he told her.

She frowned at him and pulled a white blouse out of the closet and slipped into it before examining her skirts and pulling one off the hanger. She changed into it quickly.

"Hey, you know," she said thoughtfully, "maybe I shouldn't put all these clothes back in. How much room are you planning on taking up in here anyhow?"

"Not nearly as much as you do," he deadpanned, gesturing towards the explosion of clothes on her bed and in the closet.

"Well, good, that works for me, then," she said with a chuckle. She turned to face him. "Well?

"You look great."

"Really? Because I feel like—"

"Lorelai, trust me. You're perfect."

She smiled at him and leaned down to kiss him gently. "Thanks," she replied before going over to her dresser and grabbing a hairbrush to run through her hair. There was a knock at the door, and Lorelai grumbled.

"They're early. Who taught Rory to show up places _early_?"

He got off of her bed and squeezed her shoulders comfortingly. "It will be fine."

They went downstairs and Lorelai pulled the door open to reveal Rory and Logan. Lorelai smiled at them.

"Hey Mom," Rory greeted with a smile. "Hi Luke."

"Hi Rory," he replied.

"Welcome," Lorelai added, giving a smile to Logan.

"So this is my mom, you've met her a few times," Rory said to Logan with a chuckle. "And then this is Luke, you kind of met him, and I guess you two have been in cahoots, so you know each other."

"Right," Logan said. "Nice to see you again Ms. Gilmore," he said, shaking Lorelai's hand. "And nice to meet you in person again Mr. Danes."

"Please, call me Lorelai," Lorelai told him. "And come in, make yourself comfortable."

"Thanks Lorelai," he said. Rory smiled at him encouragingly. "So, Rory tells me you two are getting married," Logan said as they sat down in the living room while Luke went into the kitchen to start the dinner.

Lorelai smiled. "Yeah, planning for February."

"That's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "So Luke's making dinner tonight. Normally for Rory and I dinner consists of take out or junk food, so you're in for a treat tonight."

Logan laughed, and Rory chimed in. "Yeah, it's a surprise I wasn't an overweight child with the kinds of things we ate."

"I wish I had had meals like that growing up. Just once in a while," Logan added. "I can't tell you the number of times I was served some kind of dinner with food so fancy I wasn't even sure I wanted to know what it was or what was in it."

Lorelai laughed. "I'm with you there."

Luke entered the room. "Shouldn't take too long," he announced, "I actually prepared most of it earlier, just have to heat it up and make a few things."

"See," Rory told Logan, "Mom's lucky Luke knows how to cook, otherwise they'd be in real trouble."

"Hey, it's not my fault," Lorelai said. "My mother never taught me how to cook, because _she_ doesn't know how to cook. She has her maids to prepare all her meals for her. At least I hack it on my own."

"Or, you have Luke to prepare your meals for you," Rory interjected.

"Not all the time," Lorelai defended herself.

"Uh huh," Rory disagreed. She turned to Logan. "We ate at Luke's nine times out of ten when we ate out. Breakfast, always, dinner, a lot of the time."

"They keep me in business with coffee alone," Luke added.

Logan laughed. "So they _both_ have that caffeine addiction?"

"Hey!" Rory said. "I'm not even nearly as bad as my mom is."

"No way," Logan responded.

"It's true," Luke supplied with a grimace. "Cut this one off one cup of coffee too early and you're risking your life."

"Hey!" Lorelai interjected. "Not true."

"Totally true," Rory agreed.

"Fine, fine, gang up on me," Lorelai stated. "Next time _I'll _cook."

Rory laughed. "So Mom, guess what Logan's favorite movie is?"

Logan groaned. "It's not my favorite."

"What is it?" Lorelai asked, excited.

"_The Way We Were_!" Rory exclaimed.

Lorelai gasped. "Wow, wonderful choice. Don't hear that a lot from guys."

"It's not my favorite," Logan insisted again. "It's just, when I was about six or seven, we had this maid that I really liked. I liked her better than my nanny, actually, she was really sweet and she was funny. So _she_ loved _The Way We Were_," he said, "and a lot of the time she would be watching it in her room at night. She watched it at least once a month. So I'd pass by and kind of watch from the doorway and she would invite me in to watch with her. It sort of became our thing. So it just always reminds me of watching it with her when I was a kid."

"Aww," Lorelai stated. "That's nice." Logan shrugged, clearly embarrassed, so Lorelai continued. "We never had a maid long enough for me to bond with them. I barely had a chance to learn their names."

"Mom loves _The Way We Were_," Rory explained to Logan. "She probably makes Luke watch it all the time."

"Oh, no, Luke hates that movie now," Lorelai stated.

"What?" Rory gasped. "Luke, how do you hate _The Way We Were_?"

"Well it doesn't exactly have the best ending," Luke mumbled.

Lorelai looked at him and smiled. "He doesn't hate the actual movie, he just doesn't like the connotation it has--" she looked at Luke. "Sorry, never mind, I'll stop now."

"Aw, why does it have a bad connotation now?" Rory asked sadly.

Lorelai looked at Luke hesitantly. "I kind of, uh-- it reminds him of our break up." She paused and glanced at Luke before continuing. "I called him after you left with Frank," she told Rory. Then she looked to Logan. "Thanks, by the way."

Logan looked confused. "Who's Frank?" he asked Rory.

"Your driver Frank."

"Oh. Oh, the time you borrowed my driver to come out here."

Rory nodded. "Yeah. My mom and Luke had just broken up and that's why I needed to get back here. My mom was a _mess_, she was in bed and upset and I've never seen her like that--" Rory glanced at Luke and realized she should probably stop talking. "Okay, sorry, anyway, _The Way We Were_ has a bad connotation?"

"Yeah, so I called Luke after you left that night and left him this long, embarrassing, rambling message while crying and, well, referenced _The Way We Were_ a few times, and bam, suddenly he doesn't like it anymore."

"Oh, Mom," Rory said with a laugh.

"Can you blame me?" Luke asked. "That was the most depressing message I've ever gotten."

Lorelai blushed. "Sorry."

"I better go check on dinner," Luke said, patting Lorelai on the shoulder before going into the kitchen.

"I'll go with him," Lorelai said a moment later before getting up and heading to the kitchen.

She glanced back to look at Rory and Logan on her way, and they looked happy, talking and laughing.

"Hey," Lorelai said, walking up to Luke in the kitchen and coming up behind him and sliding her hands around him. "How's dinner looking?"

"Everything's going according to schedule," he told her.

"Good," she said with a smile. "I'm starving."

"Newsflash."

She swatted him lightly, then sighed happily. "I like this."

"What?"

"Us, like this. We're being all married-like. You know, talking to the daughter's boyfriend, making dinner, hanging out at home."

"Ah," he said. "Well, I guess that's good seeing that we are going to be married."

"Hey, how about later we do some more _married-like_ things?" she teased with a suggestive raise of her eyebrows as Luke turned around to face her.

"Rory's here," he reminded her.

"Oh, here we go with this again. Luke. Rory is here. You're here. No big deal."

"But… she'll know."

"She won't know!" Lorelai insisted with a laugh. "She'll go into her room and close her door. We'll wait until she's asleep. We'll go up to our room, _upstairs_, and close and _lock_ our door, and she'll never know."

"Well, she won't _know_ know, but she'll assume."

"Luke, you stayed here last night and she was here. And you'll stay here more nights when she's here. And that means that she'll probably assume that _one_ of those nights we've done _something_ even if we haven't. So if she's going to be thinking it, we may as well be doing it."

"Our room," he stated.

"What?" she asked with a frown. "She might get suspicious if we go upstairs _now_," she joked.

"You said _our_ room."

"Oh," she realized. "Yeah."

"It's never been our room before."

"Well, you _are_ moving in, aren't you? And we _are_ getting married, yes?" He nodded. "So, it's our room."

"I know. It just took me by surprise."

"Bad surprise?" she asked.

"No," he stated quickly, giving her a quick kiss. "Good surprise."

"Okay, good," she smiled.

"Shouldn't you be out there with Rory and Logan?"

"I thought I'd give Logan a little breather, a chance to not have to keep up with the small talk."

"Oh," Luke realized.

"He's a pretty nice guy," Lorelai said biting her lip. "I kind of like him in this environment. It was unfortunate how I met him the first few times."

Luke nodded. "He seems like a good guy."

"I mean, he still has a wild streak and it's obvious he does crazy things, but maybe that's good for Rory. As long as she doesn't steal anymore yachts."

Luke laughed a little. "Right."

"And I still _really _don't like his family, especially his father."

"But you can't let that influence your opinion of him. After all, _you're_ quite different from your parents."

She nodded in reluctant agreement. "Remember when Rory got back together with Dean last year? I told you it was her choice who she chooses to be with not ours. And that still holds, even though I'm not particularly comfortable with her current choice at the moment. Just, please, remind me of that if I start turning into my mother?"

He nodded. "My pleasure."

"He's me," Lorelai stated. "I mean, he's me if I had done what my parents wanted me to do with my life."

"What?"

"Living up to his parents' expectations, going to the same school as his parents, getting along better with the maids than his parents, growing up in that lifestyle."

"Oh," Luke realized. "I guess he kind of is."

"I kind of feel for him. I don't think he likes it."

"Maybe you should help him break out then," Luke teased.

"Maybe," Lorelai pretended to consider it. Luke shook his head and took something out of the oven, then hit Lorelai with the oven mitten.

"Dinner," he told her as he walked out of the room to go tell Rory and Logan.

xxxxxxxxxx

The next morning Luke came downstairs dressed and fully awake a little after nine. He was surprised to see Rory already up.

"Hey Luke," she greeted him with a smile.

"Hey," he said. "You're up early."

"I know," she said. "I like to wake up early sometimes, actually."

"I thought no one woke up before noon in this house?"

"That's what Mom thinks," Rory laughed. "Usually by the time she gets up she just assumes I've just gotten up, but in actuality I've been up for hours. It started after I started Yale. I got used to waking up early because most of my classes are early, so…"

"Right," he agreed. "Makes sense." Luke disappeared into the kitchen, and returned a moment later. "Hey, Rory?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you really okay with everything?"

"Everything like you and Mom everything?" Luke nodded. "I'm fine with it. I'm beyond fine with it. I'm so happy for you guys."

"But you're sure you're comfortable with it all?" he asked, sitting down on the couch with her.

Rory nodded. "Yes. I promise. Totally and completely comfortable with it."

Luke nodded. "Okay." He watched her for a moment. "What about the… moving?"

"Oh," Rory said. "Well, that's a little harder to get used to, but, yeah, I'm okay with that."

"I don't want anything to happen that you're not okay with."

"Well, it will be weird to not come home to this house anymore," she said, "but soon I'll be coming home less and less anyhow," she added almost sadly. "And the new house will become home to me soon enough. Mom is so excited about it, and I hear you love it, and it _is_ much bigger, you know, for… well, however you want to fill that space," Rory said with a smile. "We'll all get used to it together."

Luke smiled. "Okay. Good."

She returned his smile. "Thanks for checking in with me though."

"Of course," he said. "I want to make sure you're happy."

"I'm happy if you and Mom are happy."

"Well, okay."

"Thanks for everything. Thanks for taking care of Mom the past few weeks. I know things were weird between me and Mom, but I knew she was okay because she had you."

Luke nodded. "I'm glad you're going back," he told her.

She smiled. "Me too."

"And just so you know, I _know_ you can do anything you put your mind to."

Rory smiled. "Thanks." She watched him get up. "Don't tell Mom I'm an early riser now?"

He nodded and smiled. "Secret's safe with me."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Geez, Luke," Lorelai grumbled, "what did you put in this box?" she asked, putting it down on her bedroom floor and flopping on the bed to take a break.

"Don't ask me, you packed half of them."

"So how do you know that's one of mine?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but it sounds better."

She groaned and tossed a pillow at him, then put her hand over her face. "I'm tired."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am," she whined.

"You just want to get out of helping," he told her. Rory came into the room with a box at that moment.

"You've got Rory," she stated. "Now leave me alone."

"Hey now," Rory said, putting her hands on her hips. "Maybe Luke and I will go out for ice-cream and leave you to finish."

"Ugh, fine," Lorelai said, pulling herself up to a sitting position on the end of the bed. She looked at Luke and Rory and smiled, realizing that this was really happening. All of them, together. A family. _Her_ family. Luke rolled his eyes at Lorelai and left to go get more boxes.

"Besides," Rory said, "I told Lane I'd be over in a half hour."

"You really don't have to stay with Lane tonight," Lorelai reminded her, opening a box that was on the floor.

"I know," Rory said, "but it's your first night living with Luke, and, uh…" she trailed off uncomfortably. "Well, I just thought you might like some privacy. Besides, it will be easier on Luke to adjust."

"Luke's stayed over here with you home before," Lorelai said as she looked through the contents of the box she had opened.

"Yeah, I know, but this is different now."

Lorelai shrugged. "I guess, maybe."

"Besides, it will be fun to stay with Lane, she's leaving day after tomorrow with the band, you know."

Lorelai looked up. "Oh, that's right."

"So it will be nice to spend time with her before she goes."

"True," Lorelai agreed. "As long as you're sure."

"I'm totally sure," she said. Luke appeared in the doorway with more boxes.

"Okay, Rory, I know you're just like your mother, but I thought I had you on my side here."

Rory giggled. "Sorry!" she said before heading out of the bedroom to get one last load of boxes. Luke set the boxes down on the floor and turned to look at Lorelai who gave him an innocent smile.

"Up," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the bed.

"That's a first," she teased, "trying to get me _off_ the bed. I think you'll change your tune later," she added.

Luke glared at her. "Shh!" he said. "Rory's around."

She laughed. "My life is going to be interesting, that's for sure."

He looked at her, having tuned her out but pretty sure he was supposed to be insulted in some way by whatever she had just said.

"Here you go!" Rory said, coming into the room with more boxes. "And guess what, that's the last of them."

"Yes!" Lorelai cheered, pumping her fist in the air. "My work is over."

Luke rolled his eyes, then turned to Rory. "Thanks Rory."

"No problem," she told them. "I'm gonna head of to Lane's, though," she said. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Okay. Have fun, Hon," Lorelai said as Rory gave her a kiss on the cheek and left the room waving goodbye to Luke.

"She doesn't have to spend the night at Lane's," Luke said.

"I know, but she wants to," Lorelai said. "Besides, it's like pulling teeth to get you to come within ten feet of me when she's here, and that _definitely_ doesn't cut it tonight so it's for the best."

Luke grumbled. "Well, what do you expect?"

"We're working on it," Lorelai said with a laugh, patting him on the shoulder. "By next summer when Rory is home you won't even think twice about having fun behind closed doors. That's my goal."

He rolled his eyes, then thought about her statement. "We'll be married by then."

She smiled and her expression changed from playful to content. "Yeah. We will be." The playful look returned. "Which means we should still be in the honeymoon phase and you can't dwell on the fact that Rory is here."

"Lorelai," he grumbled. "Let's please not think about that."

"Wow, the thought of sex with me is that appalling?" she asked with a roll of her eyes. "Sheesh, should have told me that before I proposed."

He rolled his. "Shut up," he told her, looking through the box she had been looking through earlier.

"Hey, where are we going to go on our honeymoon?" she asked suddenly, moving closer to him as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.

He shrugged. "Wherever you want." She opened her mouth to speak. "But nowhere with flashing lights or people in animal costumes or nothing but beaches."

She pouted. "Okay, that took out about 70 of my choices."

"Go with the other 30 then."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter," she said with a grin, looking over at him. "Because all we _really_ need is a hotel room, right?"

He raised his eyebrows at her and she giggled. "Right," he said.

"Hey," she said, taking the book he had in his hand out of his hand and tossing it in the box. "Let's practice," she whispered in his ear, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him down to the bed on top of her, immediately seeking out his lips with her own.

"Sure. Practice is good," he mumbled against her lips.

"Practice makes perfect," she added between kisses.

"I think we've already got the perfect part down," he muttered, and she pulled away to grin at him.

"My God, you are a smooth talker," she said before taking his lips over with her own again.

xxxxxxxxx

"Okay. You can go use the bathroom first," she stated later that night. "Or we could go together."

He frowned at her. "Okay, I love you and all but…"

She shook her head. "No, I mean to brush our teeth," she stated.

"Lorelai, why is this an issue? I've spent the night here before. Many times."

"I know, but this is different now. These routines we establish now are possibly the routines we will use for the rest of our life."

"How about this," he said. "You go use the bathroom first, like always, and then I'll go in. Like always."

"Yeah, but when we used to stay at your _old_ place," she said, placing an emphasis on 'old' and grinning at him, "you always used the bathroom first."

"Go," he instructed her, pointing to the door.

She shrugged. "Okay. But don't come crying to me in five years that you want to use the bathroom first," she said, disappearing down the hall in nothing but his flannel shirt.

He briefly wondered how she had managed to locate that shirt already in the mess of boxes. He looked around at everything strewn across the room. Boxes, things they had unpacked but not put away, her clothes that had been already scattered around the room. He smiled to himself realizing that all his belongings were here, in her bedroom.

It still amazed him sometimes that this was for real. After all the years he had only imagined this, it was really happening.

Lorelai returned and smiled at him. "Bathroom's all yours," she said with a smile. He got up off the bed and headed to the bathroom, stopping when he passed her to place a kiss on her lips. She grinned happily and settled down on the bed.

When he returned, she looked at him with a smile.

"What now?" he asked.

"Which side of the bed do you want?"

"Lorelai, honestly," he said. "We can keep the same sides of the bed."

"But like I said, the routines we establish now--"

"I hate to break it to you," he interrupted her, "but I think we've already established routines."

She smiled. "Guess so. So that's your side then?"

"I'm good with this side," he agreed.

"Okay, good," she said, settling down under the covers. He did the same. "Weird?" she asked.

"What?"

"Being here. Sleeping here and knowing you _live_ here now."

"Kind of," he said. "I mean, being here feels normal, but it still feels like I have to go home to get my things."

She nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Hey Luke?"

"What?"

"You know you're the only one, right?"

"The only one what?"

"The only one who's ever slept in my bed with me. Or slept with me in my bed," she added with a giggle and a knowing look.

He frowned. "Really?"

"I thought you knew that," she added.

"Well I didn't _exactly_ know that," he said. "But I knew how you were about Rory and people you were dating when she was younger."

"Max stayed here once," she said. "But he just slept here. And I was _so_ freaked out by it that I ended up sleeping downstairs with Rory."

He laughed. "Nice."

"He woke up the next morning and found me in Rory's bed. I felt kind of bad, so I told him Rory had had a nightmare. I don't think he bought it being that she was almost seventeen at the time, but at least I tried."

"So why me?" he asked.

"Why you?" she repeated.

"Why didn't you think twice about having me here when we started dating?"

She shrugged. "You were already so in my life that it just felt right."

"Oh," he said.

She rolled over towards him. "I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he replied, pulling her closer to him.

"Remember the first night we spent together?" she asked.

"Of course," he said.

"I was so nervous," she stated. "When we went upstairs and as the clothes came off," she said. "I mean, wasn't it nerve wracking?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it was kind of scary. It was you and me. After years."

"Exactly," she agreed. "But it was _amazing_," she added.

"Definitely," he agreed, wondering if she even knew where she was going with this. "It was you and me. After years," he added again.

She giggled. "Yeah. But now look at us, not even thinking twice about ripping each other's clothes off or having our own clothes ripped off."

"Well I think if I actually _ripped _your clothes, you may think twice about it," he stated. "Were you going somewhere with this?" he added.

"I'm just saying. At first it was scary _because_ it was you and me. And that first time was unbelievably amazing _because_ it was you and me. But it's still amazing. Always. The nervousness and the newness are gone and it's still amazing." She paused. "Isn't it?"

He chuckled and ran a hand through her hair. "Yes. It is."

"My parents have been married for forty years," she stated.

"Uh huh," he replied.

"Can we be married for that long? That's a long time. That's longer than we've even been alive so far."

"As long as you're not planning on an early death from your obsessive intake of caffeine."

She laughed a little. "Deal."

xxxxxxxxx

She found it hard to believe that it was only the 4th of July. It seemed like the summer had drawn on for a long time already. It seemed like three summers had passed already.

She was waiting for the fireworks in the Town Square, watching Rory giggle and happily talk to Logan, who she'd convinced to come into town to spend the 4th of July with her. She looked happy with him, Lorelai realized. And while she didn't like Rory stealing yachts and having casual sex, she _did_ like seeing her happy.

She stood in the middle of the town square when Luke walked up to her. She grinned happily. She had spent the better part of the morning trying to convince him to come outside for the fireworks that night, and he had refused. Somehow, though, she knew he would come outside at the last minute.

"Hey there stranger," she greeted him with a grin.

"Hey yourself."

She smiled and sighed contentedly. "I think everything is back to normal again."

"Seems that way," he agreed. "Rory's going back to Yale, you and Rory are good again, you're talking to your parents but still not thrilled with them and Logan doesn't seem so bad anymore."

She looked up at the sky, waiting for the fireworks. "And you and I are… well, different, but we're good."

"We're very good," he agreed, glancing up at the sky to see what she was looking at, then looked back down when he saw there was nothing but dark sky above them. He noticed she was now looking at him intently. "What?"

She shook her head slightly. "Nothing," she said, and he noticed her voice was wavering as it usually did before she started to cry. She composed herself and took a breath. "I mean, these past few months, everything has been crazy. Things were out of control; one by one everything started falling apart. But you were there the whole time, Luke. With me. I mean, nothing chased you away. No matter how bad things got, you were still right there with me on my side. You were there when I was upset, when I was afraid, when I needed someone, you were there no matter what." She stopped to gather her thoughts and looked down at her feet before looking back up at him. "I don't think I could have gotten through all this without you."

"Yes you would have," he told her confidently.

"Well, maybe. But I wouldn't have gotten through it easily. I think you passed the test. If you can deal with all this, all the drama and all the stress and everything, I think you're gonna make it being married to me." He smiled slightly and laughed a little. "I know you're going to be an amazing husband," she added. "If I wasn't sure before, which I was, the past two months proved it. I mean, absolutely amazing, no doubt about it. I just hope that I'll be half as--"

He stopped her by placing a finger against her lips. "You'll be more than half as amazing. You'll be just as amazing."

Her lips curved into a smile. "I hope so."

"I know so," he told her. "And I'm the one that gets to decide, right? So I get the final say."

She smiled and went to hug him tightly.

"Thank you. For being so amazing."

He shrugged. "No big deal."

She glanced at Rory and Logan again over his shoulder as she held onto him. She finally pulled away, but left one arm around his waist, leaning up against him and he kissed her on the head.

A moment later the streetlights turned off (you have to love Taylor, thinking Stars Hollow is Disneyland or something, turning the streetlights off for a fireworks show) and the first of the fireworks began to boom and streak across the sky. Lorelai and Luke looked up and watched for a few moments.

"Admit it, they're pretty," she said to Luke without tearing her gaze from the sky.

"Maybe they're not so bad," he replied with a grumble. "But not pretty."

She rolled her eyes slightly. "Okay, you win. Not pretty." She finally tore her eyes from the sky to look at him, watching him look up at the sky. When he felt her gaze on him he looked down at her, and she wasted no time reaching up and pulling his face to hers and attaching their lips. She kissed him deeply, letting her tongue slide over his, pulling away earlier than she would have liked just because she knew he was probably not a fan of a kiss like this in the middle of the town square.

"Relax, everyone is looking at the sky," she told him with a laugh.

"Uh huh," he stated, clearly taken aback by the sudden kiss.

She giggled. "A little thank you. For everything."

"If that's going to happen every year, maybe I have incentive to come to this thing more often."

She laughed. "Hey, good idea. Every year from now until our forty years are up, we'll come here and watch the fireworks and I'll kiss you like that."

"Every year?"

"Yeah, every year, no matter what. Fighting or whatever, that's what we'll do on the Fourth of July. Right here. And then when we have kids, they can come here and watch, too. Oh my God, that will be so much fun."

"Aren't kids supposed to be scared of these things?"

"_Your_ kids probably will be," she said with a good nature roll of her eyes.

"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't see the point."

She shook her head at him and smiled, rubbing small circles on his back. "Yeah yeah."

"What if we decide one year we want to go away for the holiday?"

She thought about that. "Well, then we watch fireworks somewhere. Together. But it's preferably here."

"How did I just get roped in to watching fireworks every Fourth of July for the rest of my life?" he asked with a frown.

"My magic, Babe, get used to it."

"Guess I have no choice," he said, putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer to him.

"Do you realize we're getting married? I mean, like you said, what if one year we want to go away? You know, like families do. We're going to be that."

He nodded and kissed her on the head, making sure everyone was still looking at the sky. "Yeah. We are." She laughed a moment later, and he looked down at her. "What?"

"I just can't picture you wanting to _go away_ over a _holiday_," she stated.

"It was hypothetical. Don't get any ideas."

She took his hand and pulled him down onto the bench that was behind them, where they sat and continued to look up at the sky.

"Thank you," she whispered quietly as he let his thumb graze her fingers and palm of her hand, sliding over her engagement ring slowly.

He looked down at her, not sure why she was thanking him, exactly, this time.

"Anytime."

THE END

The end! Man, this story got WAY off track towards the end, lol. Sorry about that! I hope that it all made sense to you guys (because it did in my head!) and it didn't start rambling in places.

And now, the long wait until S6 continues. We've already made it 5 weeks. Phew.


End file.
